A cocaine addict who was helped by two partners-in-crime as he robbed a pizza delivery driver during a terrifying late-night crime after a drunk and drug binge in Carlisle has been jailed for almost three years.
The city’s crown court heard today how the 26-year-old victim was lured to a fictional house number in Harraby at around 2am on July 28 last year. As he drove around in his search for the property in Dale End Road, Billy Moorhead, 35, approached and asked for the £81 order of pizza, alcohol, cigarettes and cola.
When told he would have to pay, Moorhead turned violent and punched the man in the face leaving him with a cut above his right eye.
Moorhead then ordered two accomplices, Alexandru Pruna, 28, and 41-year-old Jonathan David Rogers, to snatch the delivery. “They did and ran off with everything,” said prosecutor Brendan Burke. “Curiously the defendant then said to (the victim) ‘you don’t deserve this’ and then ran off himself.”
But Moorhead was swiftly nabbed by police who learned the call placed with the city centre takeaway before the robbery had come from his phone, officers already knowing his number.
“Police attended an address at Welsh Road where the three were enjoying the spoils,” said Mr Burke. This included half-eaten pizza. They blamed each other after being arrested and taken into custody.
Moorhead, previously of Welsh Road, Carlisle, admitted robbery. Barrister David Callan, defending, outlined his client’s addiction to cocaine and alcohol, and said of the crime: “The defendant thinks it was disgraceful. Somebody delivering pizza should not be subjected to this behaviour.”
Recorder Paul Hodgkinson — who considered a psychiatric report — imposed a 34-month prison sentence. “He was simply going about his work,” said Recorder Hodgkinson of the victim, “going about a difficult job helping the public, and you abused that help he gave the public by robbing him and stealing these items.”
Pruna, of Warwick Square, Carlisle, had been jailed for 27 weeks at a previous hearing when Rogers, of the city’s Cumwhinton Road, received a community order comprising unpaid work and a curfew. Both men admitted theft.
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