A man was jailed on Thursday for a violent robbery which saw the victim ordered into the boot of his own car at gunpoint.
Paul Robert Beggs, from James Street in Ballymena, Co Antrim was handed an eight years sentence - with half to be served on licence - for the “very sinister” incident as well as another violent robbery on the same night in 2019.
The East Belfast incident saw the victim accosted by Beggs and another man before he was driven around in his car while the pair rifled through his wallet before being taken to derelict building and tied up.
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Newry Crown Court Judge Neil Rafferty KC said while he accepted the 31-year-old was not involved in the initial kidnap, he had “very actively” involved himself in holding the victim hostage so “in my view he is equally culpable”.
Beggs had entered guilty pleas to three counts of robbery and single offences of false imprisonment, theft from a person, having a gun to cause fear, making off without payment and arson, all committed within hours of each other on March 21-22, 2019.
Beggs, appeared at court by video link from prison, to be sentenced on Thursday.
Summarising the case during his sentencing remarks, Judge Rafferty outlined how a student was getting out of his Seat Ibiza car on the Castlereagh Road in East Belfast when he was approached by two men, one of whom had a black handgun.
The court heard they ordered him back into the car while his phone, driving licence and wallet were taken from him and his personal details and address “read back to him and he was made to confirm the details were correct”.
With the victim tied at the wrists and ordered into the boot, Beggs got into the car and the victim could see he had a three inch scar on his face and part of his nose missing.
The judge said that “Beggs told the victim that the UDA had done that a week before” when they joined the group, adding that the “clear implication being that Beggs was a member of a paramilitary organisation”.
At one point, the court heard, the assailants demanded the PIN codes for the victim’s phone and bank cards with threats that if they were wrong he would be kneecapped.
Driving around Belfast, the victim was allowed to use the toilet before being put back into the boot and as some kind of “gesture, offered a line of cocaine”.
Eventually, the car pulled up outside a derelict house where the victim was escorted inside, taken upstairs and bound hand and foot to a towel rail by Beggs but again, as another gesture, he was left with two bottles of beer “in case he got thirsty”.
Having sat there petrified for hours, the victim realised the men weren’t coming back so he managed to free himself and left the house, managing to summons help from a Good Samaritan driving along the Hannahstown Road. That driver, who Judge Rafferty said should be commended for stopping, told police the victim was so terrified he initially didn’t want to tell the police.
In a seperate incident Beggs, this time with two accomplices, drove the stolen Seat Ibiza to the Stranmillis area of South Belfast where they robbed two students at gun point in the early hours of March 22.
Noticing the gun was “pointing at them”, the two victims were pushed against a wall and had their phones and wallets taken. The next stage in the “spree of criminality” was about an hour later at a garage on the Andersonstown Road where Beggs tried to use the kidnap victim’s bank card to pay for petrol.
When the card was refused and retained, the trio sped off and the car was later found burnt. But Beggs’ DNA was retrieved from the bank card and he was later arrested and charged.
Judge Rafferty revealed that Beggs has 102 previous convictions which was just one of the “significant aggravating factors” attached to the case, adding that others included the use of a firearm, actual violence being used, that the victim was held and tied up for eight to nine hours and that it was all part of a crime spree.
Jailing Beggs, Judge Rafferty said there was an argument for consecutive sentences which would have resulted in a sentence “well into double figures” but that in applying the totality principle and credit for his guilty pleas, he imposed an eight and a half year sentence.
Police yesterday welcomed the sentence.
Detective Inspector Michael McDonnell said: “The first incident took place in Belfast’s Isoline Street on the night of 21 March 2019. A young man, sitting in his parked car, was approached by two men, one of whom was armed with a gun. The pair initially forced the victim into the back of the car, drove away and stopped a short time later to bind his hands and put him in the boot. They took his wallet and phone, before driving off again.
“Later, after being joined by a third man, they demanded the victim’s bank card and code, and stopped at an ATM where they withdrew money from his account. All this time - an ordeal that lasted for hours - the young man was kept in the boot.
“Finally, the three suspects took the victim to a derelict house in a rural area, where they tied him up and left him. He eventually managed to break free and raise the alarm with a passing driver.
“This must have been an absolutely terrifying event. It was a prolonged, cowardly and cruel ordeal – one which, without doubt, will never be forgotten.”
The second incident, police say, took place in the early hours of March 22, 2019 in the Ridgeway Street/Strandview Street area of Belfast. This time, two male students were approached by three men, one armed with a handgun.
One of the victims was punched, and both were robbed of their phones and bank cards. “The suspects drove off, but thankfully the robbery was witnessed by members of the public who contacted police with the vehicle’s registration number”, the police added.
Detective Inspector McDonnell added: “I’m keen to thank those members of the public who were quick to help - in both cases. Such support was invaluable to the victims, and invaluable to our investigation.”
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