Birmingham robber jailed after being caught trying to rob same bank three times
A Birmingham bank robber is back behind bars after he was caught trying to rob the same bank for the third time.
Cecil Stevens had already served two jail terms for a bank robbery when he threatened a cashier at the NatWest bank in St Phillips Place.
During the robbery on October 11 last year, he grabbed notes from the cash drawer.
And just 24 hours later – the brazen 56-year-old robbed the same bank again, this time grabbing cash along with a red dye pack.
CCTV showed Stevens making off with the dye leaking from his trouser pocket. The cash and dye pack were then found in a bin nearby.
Later that day, the hapless thief tried his luck at Nationwide in High Street. With a towel wrapped around his head, he went behind the counter, threatened a cashier and grabbed notes from an auto-teller machine. The cashier immediately activated the security smoke device and the bank filled with smoke as Stevens fled the scene.
But he tried his luck again at NatWest on November 7, but was spotted by the manager who recognised him. A security guard asked him to remove his headwear, but he walked off instead. The manager followed him, who then alerted police and two Colmore Business Improvement District (BID) security officers who kept watch on Stevens until police arrived.
Stevens, of Lombard Street, in Digbeth, had already served two prison sentences – one for robbing a building society in Walsall at gunpoint in 1998 and another robbery at a post office in East Yorkshire in 2008.
He pleaded guilty to one robbery, two thefts and one attempted theft – and was jailed for 11 years at Birmingham Crown Court on Wednesday(19).
Detective Constable Nick Betts said: "I have to praise the actions of the bank manager and security team in the city centre. They reacted immediately and were instrumental in putting a prolific offender behind bars for a very long time."
