Armed robber jailed after raiding director's £2.5m home at gunpoint

An armed robber who tied up and threatened to shoot the wife and daughter of a wealthy company director in their £2.5 million Sandbanks home has been jailed for 16 years.

Career criminal Aaron Evans and accomplice Ashley Fulton held Kerry and Emily Aitchison at gunpoint during the terrifying raid on their luxury Poole harbour home - in which they stole £200K of luxury goods.

After tying up Mrs Aitchison they threatened to burn Emily, 22, with an iron and then shoot her mother in front of her if she didn't open the safe.

Brave Mrs Aitchison, 55, called the pair 'scum of the earth' and didn't give them the code. 

Evans and Fulton ransacked the £2.5m house before fleeing with more than £200,000 worth of luxury watches, designer handbags and cash.

The bungling robbers made a catalogue of errors that led police to their door.

They left their DNA all over the property and their getaway car was caught on CCTV and found to be registered to Fulton's address. When police found the vehicle they recovered vapes inside with their DNA on.

Mobile phone records later showed Fulton had Googled the exact rare model of Patek Philippe watch they had stolen two hours after the heist.

Police also found online orders made by Fulton for police ID wallets and lanyards the pair used to trick their way into the Aitchison home.

Evans, 42, had been given a life sentence for armed robberies in 2004. He had escaped from prison and carried out a gunpoint raid on a jewellery store in Essex two days later and then an armed robbery on a Securicor van.

He was out of prison on licence at the time of the Sandbanks raid.

He was branded a 'dangerous offender' who posed a significant risk of serious harm to the public by a judge who jailed him at Bournemouth Crown Court.

The Aitchison family have still not fully seen justice done as the sentencing of Fulton has been delayed for at least a month.

The court heard the violent robbers posed as police officers investigating a rape to gain entry to the Aitchison house in the exclusive cul-de-sac of Chaddesley Glen.

After the door was answered, they barged their way in and bound Mrs Aitchison, a physio and personal trainer, with cable ties and threatened to kill her if she didn't give them the code to the safe.

After half an hour daughter Emily, an estate agent, came home on her lunch break.

One of the men held a gun to her head, dragged her by the hair and threatened to shoot her and burn her with an iron.

She entered the wrong code twice and told the robbers a third incorrect entry would trigger the alarm.

The pair panicked and eventually fled the scene and Emily was able to run to a neighbour's house to raise the alarm and then cut her mum free.

The court heard both men deliberately targeted the Aitchisons. Mrs Aitchison's husband Mark is the chief executive officer of Colten Care, which owns 21 care homes in the south of England.

He was not home when the criminals struck on February 21, 2023, at about 1pm.

They stole about £200,000 worth of watches, five Louis Vuitton bags, a Mulberry bag, Cartier jewellery and £1,400 cash. The family did not want the contents of the safe revealed in court.

Evans was arrested at a ferry terminal in Birkenhead on April 18 with a Rolex watch and a fake passport. Fulton and his girlfriend Lacey Langton were arrested by armed police at a Heathrow hotel on May 14.

In their room police found thousands in cash, four mobile phones and a bag of watches and jewellery, none of which was connected to the Chaddesley Glen robbery.

The Aitchisons' valuables were never recovered.

Fulton admitted two counts of robbery, possession of an imitation firearm, three offences of fraud and three of possessing ID documents with improper intent, one of possession of an article for use in fraud and possession of cocaine.

Evans pleaded guilty to two robberies, possession of an imitation firearm and one count of fraud for a false passport.

Langton admitted perverting the course of justice and possessing an identity document with improper intent.

Mrs Aitchison previously told the court: 'Home should feel a safe place, a sanctuary, a haven. For me it's a crime scene where I thought myself and my daughter would be killed. I am a mere shadow of my former self because of this violent intrusion.

'Gone is the positive, vibrant outgoing woman and in her place is someone I don't recognise.'

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Armed robbers disguised as police officers tied up wealthy director's wife and daughter

For committing this offence Evans was recalled to prison on a life sentence for several previous armed robberies in 2004. The court heard he had 22 previous convictions for 110 offences.

James Hay, defending, said: 'He is already serving a life sentence so the public can be adequately protected without the need to impose a second such sentence.'

Judge William Mousley KC said: 'Kerry and Emily Aitchison were subjected to a terrifying ordeal, robbed at gunpoint in their home by two men who tied them up and threatened to shoot and kill them.

'The two men stole in excess of £200,000 worth of property belonging to them and Mark Aitchison. That would have been more if they had been able to gain access to a safe in the house.

'The psychological harm was severe, they were both terrified.'

He praised mother and daughter for their 'courageous' personal statements which 'powerfully expressed' the impact the ordeal had on them.

To Evans he said: 'You are a dangerous offender, you pose a significant risk of serious harm to the public. Your previous offences and the facts of these offences, the high level of danger you impose, which will in my judgement remain indefinitely, all support the imposition of a sentence of life imprisonment.

'However I must consider the available alternatives.'

He decided a second life sentence would not be appropriate but made an extended sentence of 16 years - 12 in custody and four years on licence. But Evans would need to go before a parole board before he could be released for the previous life sentence.

Langton, 23, is set to be sentenced today.