Police impostors jailed over robbery

The raiders posed as police to get into the warehouse

Armed robbers who posed as policemen to trick their way into a Wiltshire cash-and-carry, kidnap the manager and steal £34,000 of cigarettes have been jailed.

Robert William Tyler, 42, and Wayne Anthony Lodder, 27, were found guilty of armed robbery and kidnap following the incident on 15 November 1999.

In a 10-day trial, Swindon Crown Court heard the pair set off the burglar alarm at Booker's in Trowbridge before tricking their way in after the police had investigated and left.

They bound, gagged and beat assistant warehouse manager Laurence Wardell and stole cigarettes and tobacco before kidnapping and dumping him in an isolated lane.

Police decoy

The jury was told Tyler and Lodder, who had denied the charges against them, watched as genuine police officers responded to an alarm at the cash-and-carry.

The men escaped with £34,000 of cigarettes

After they left, one of the men dressed in a police uniform knocked at the warehouse door and was let in by Mr Wardell, 31.

But the bogus officer was armed with a baseball bat, and his accomplice - in dark overalls and balaclava - with a bowie knife.

The men tied Mr Wardell up with gaffer tape and beat him when he tried to hide the keys to a van they planned to steal.

After loading the van with cigarettes and tobacco, they threw him inside and drove him to an isolated lane.

Mr Wardell was left to hop 40 yards to a nearby road, his legs still bound with tape, to flag down a passing ambulance.

Tyler, of Southmead, Bristol, was jailed for nine years. Lodder, also of Southmead, was sentenced to six years in prison.