A gang have been jailed for subjecting two tourists to a terrifying gunpoint robbery after luring them to a play area in a Devon town.

Jamie Jones, Neil Groft and Thomas Papworth drove the two victims to the Bakers Park area of Newton Abbot where they said they would sell them cannabis.

One they got there they forced one of them to hand over his belongings at gunpoint while they aimed the gun at the other as he ran for his life.

Police never recovered the weapon but the three men said it was a BB gun which someone had left in the glove compartment of Papworth's car.

Victims Hassan Khan and Samu Miah both worked in Indian restaurants in Birmingham and were in Devon on holiday when they met Groft and Jones in the Richard Hopkins pub in Newton Abbot.

They spoke about buying cannabis and when Papworth turned up he drove them to Bakers Park where the attack took place.

Jones pointed the gun directly at Mr Hassan, made a racist insult and demanded he hand over all his money, taking £170 before he escaped.

Mr Miah had called the police and a major search was launched in which officers arrested the robbers but failed to find the gun, which they suspected had been in a safe which was later found in a hedge near Liverton.

Three other people admitted perverting the course of justice by moving the safe, which actually contained a small amount of drugs and no guns when it was opened by detectives.

Jones, aged 25, of Broadlands Avenue, Newton Abbot; Papworth, aged 20, of Hensford Road, Dawlish; and Groft, aged 30, of Carswells, Kingskerswell, all admitted robbing Mr Khan in January last year.

James Carpenter, aged 23, of Ash Road, Kingsteignton; Ineson, aged 23, of St Leonards Road, Newton Abbot; and Craig Lee, aged 24, of Holbrooke Farm, Liverton, near Newton Abbot, all admitted attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Jones was jailed for four years and six months, Papworth for three years and two months, Groft for three years and a month.

Carpenter and Lee were jailed for 13 months and Ineson for 20 months, all suspended for two years. Ineson was curfewed for three months and ordered to do 100 hours unpaid community work, Carpenter was curfewed for two months.

Judge Phillip Wassall told the three main defendants:"You all engaged in a robbery. Both men saw the gun and must have been completely terrified.

"It does not matter that it was an imitation firearm because the men thought it was real. In Jones' case there is the aggravating feature of the racist insult."

Mr Greg Richardson, prosecuting, said the two men from Birmingham were drinking at the Wetherspoons pub in Newton Abbot when they met Jones and Groft, who talked about supplying drugs.

They were joined by Papworth, who had a car and drove them all to Bakers Park where the robbery took place. Papworth drove after him and crashed the car into a lamp post while Groft chased him on foot.

Mr Miah fled when he saw the gun but Jones caught Mr Hassan as he tried to get away. He held the gun to his head and forced him to hand over £170.

The victims fled and called the police who picked out the car on CCTV and found it near where Papworth was living in Kingsteignton.

All three were arrested and a search started for the gun, which was never found. Papworth's girlfriend Ineson arranged for a safe to be moved from his home to Carpenter's, and Lee then moved it again and disposed of it in a hedge.

Lee later turned himself into the police and showed them where to find the safe, which did not contain any gun.

Mr Rupert Taylor, Mr Gareth Evans, and Mr Sean Brunton, defending the three robbers, said it was a drunken unplanned escapade. Mr Taylor said:"It was not a concerted plan. It was a drunken opportunistic crime."

Miss Emily Pitts, Mr Jason Beal, and Miss Bathsheba Cassel, for the other three, said they acted out of misplaced loyalty and thought the safe contained stolen goods or drugs rather than a gun.

Carpenter was said to be vulnerable with mental health problems and Ineson is a single mother with two children under five. Lee did not even see the safe, which was in a safe which he dumped in a hedge.

Following the sentencing, Detective Inspector Jim Tarr commented "We are satisfied at the sentence imposed at court today.

The defendants involved in the robbery used firearms to instill fear into the victims. Such use will not be tolerated and will continue to pursue persons who use them.

We are also pleased with the conviction for the three defendants who perverted the course of justice in an effort to protect the robbers from justice.

Such actions are taken very seriously by Police and we will always look to prosecute. Newton Abbot is a very safe area and this type of incident is extremely rare'.

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