Collingham: Pensioner tried to fight off knife-wielding teen with garden tools in Leeds village Audi robbery
A pensioner bravely tried to fight off a knife-wielding teen robber who entered his property and demanded he hand over the keys for his Audi.
The 79-year-old used a garden rake then a pair of shears to try to stop Daniel Bright who was brandishing the nine-inch kitchen blade. Having snatched the keys to the £18,500 car, he then returned later that night, broke into the garage and took the car before crashing it.
The 18-year-old was handed a 26-month sentence in a young offender institute at Leeds Crown Court this week.
It was heard that the elderly man had been in his garden in Collingham at around 7.35pm on May 5 last year, when Bright approached him wearing a balaclava and a hoodie. He said: “I want the key. Give me the key.” He was referring to the Audi A1 parked on the drive, and was holding the knife.
Holding a rake at the time, the man tried to hit Bright with it, but Bright grabbed the prongs to stop it making contact. They struggled for a few seconds before the man picked up the shears and tried to fend him off, but Bright then grabbed the weapon from him.
The victim relented and said he would get the key and went inside, trying to shut the door behind him, but Bright followed quickly behind and stopped the door from being closed. The man shouted for his wife to call 999 but Bright went into the kitchen and took the keys, along with woman’s iPhone, and fled.
In the early hours of the next morning, Bright returned and broke his way into the garage and stole the Audi. CCTV showed him taking the vehicle. It was later found abandoned on the ring road in east Leeds, with a wheel missing.
Bright later confessed to friends that he had taken the car and “flipped” it after failing to take a bend. The police were called and he was arrested from his foster mother’s home.
Despite giving no comments, forensics found his blood at the scene. He later admitted a charge of robbery and burglary. He has no previous convictions.
Mitigating, Craig Sutcliffe said that Bright, of Eccup Lane, Adel, had only been 17 at the time. He said that alcohol had become a “factor in his life” and that he was smoking cannabis.
He said Bright had endured an “unusually disruptive childhood”. The court was told that Bright was also diagnosed with ADHD and autism.
The judge, Recorder Aisha Wadoodi told Bright he had caused a “great deal of anxiety and emotional trauma” to the elderly couple. She acknowledged his upbringing and that he had been “repeatedly rejected by care givers”.
She told him that had he been older, he would likely have received a sentence of six-and-a-half years, and said that even if he had still a youth (under 18), he would have gone into custody also.