Two brothers have been jailed for sickening robberies in which they snatched high-end watches from affluent diners after they left restaurants in upmarket Hale. On two occasions, Dean and Gary Stanway - career criminals from Wythenshawe - followed couples after they left Cibo Italian restaurant after spotting they were wearing luxury watches, including a £40,000 Rolex Daytona and a rare £182,000 Patek Philippe timepiece.
Wearing balaclavas, they threatened one man with baseball bats and terrified his wife by demanding her wedding ring. In a later but almost identical attack, the brothers wrestled the owner of the Patek Philippe timepiece to the ground and threatened him with batons.
He managed to keep hold of the watch although the strap, itself worth £12,000, was taken, as well as his partner's £13,000 Rolex. Now the brothers, and three other members of their gang, have been jailed after a court heard of the lasting trauma they had inflicted.
The Stanway brothers were involved in one horrific robbery in which a couple were followed and threatened with baseball bats after they enjoyed a meal in Hale before a Rolex watch was stolen.
After the couple left Cibo restaurant at 9.30pm on October 31, 2020, they were followed by a Vauxhall Astra, with its lights switched off, and the occupants of the vehicle pounced as the couple turned into Brown Street, prosecutor Joshua Bowker told Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court.
The vehicle's light came back on as the Astra 'screeched' alongside the couple and three masked men armed with baseball bats jumped out, the court was told. One of the men repeatedly shouted 'give me your f***ing wedding ring' to the woman, while a second robber tried to rip a Rolex watch from the wrist of her husband.
As the woman struggled remove the band, the husband implored the robbers: "Just take my watch - leave my wife alone." The gang grabbed the £40,000 Rolex Daytona timepiece and sped away in the Astra, leaving the terrified couple in their wake.
A police investigation uncovered CCTV which captured the Astra at Altrincham retail park in Broadheath with Dean Stanway inside a few days after the robbery. Analysis of his mobile phone also placed him near the scene of the Hale robbery hours earlier suggesting he had carried out reconnaissance, the court was told.
Gary Stanway had also been on touch with a watch dealer in Leeds before the Rolex was stolen. The owner of the Rolex, in a victim impact statement read out in court, said he was 'upset and angry' that his safety had been 'violated'.
He described the robbery as 'shocking' and went on it had left him 'unable to focus on work and always on edge', and constantly 'worried someone was going to come around the corner' to attack him.
He said he no longer felt safe in his own home and struggled to sleep at night. He said he was 'always looking over my shoulder' and 'feels vulnerable and lonely'. His wife said the robbery was 'terrifying' and had affected her mental health and 'day-to-day life'.
She added that she now drives anywhere she has to go and struggled with anxiety and sleep. She said she suffers flashbacks. Her mood was 'up and down'. The woman was being treated for insomnia and had been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. She went on that she felt 'uncomfortable' wearing nice clothes and jewellery when she was out and that she never left home after 5pm.
The court heard the Stanway brothers were behind an almost identical robbery of another couple after they left Cibo restaurant on August 2, 2021. The couple then went to Piccolinos and Victor's Bar before heading home that night. One, who was wearing a rare £182,000 Patek Philippe watch, later told police he noticed a man looking at the timepiece before he got into a taxi to go home.
Police analysis of CCTV showed another member of the gang, a 'spotter' named William Robinson, in Victor's bar and also in the rear of a Peugot on false plates which pulled up after the couple got out of their taxi in a cul-de-sac.
Two men wearing balaclavas and armed with 'batons' got out of the car and screamed 'give us that watch'. One snatched a £13,000 Rolex from one of their victims but the second pushed the victim to the ground and kicked him but struggled to remove the Patek Philippe timepiece. In the end, the robber managed to rip away only the watch's strap from his left wrist, although this alone was worth £12,000, the court was told.
The robbers also took Louis Vuitton bag containing sunglasses, documents, keys and other valuables. The Peugeot sped off, running a series of red lights as the robbers fled. The court heard a passer-by who heard 'screaming and shouting' and who watched the owner of the Philippe Patek being assaulted on the ground, took a photo of the incident on a mobile phone, and later handed it to police. It helped police identify the gang.
A Nokia phone battery which had been dropped near the scene was analysed and Gary Stanway's DNA was found on it. The court heard the Stanway brothers, in July 2020, had been captured on video in a stolen Mini Cooper in the car park of a social club in Newall Green Wythenshawe.
The £10,000 motor had been stolen from outside the owner's home as she was unloading her shopping. Dean Stanway, and two other members of the gang, Joshua Sharkey and Nathan Muir, were also observed by undercover cops touring affluent areas of south Manchester and Cheshire from January 2022, looking to steal valuables from cars.
On one occasion, they watched as they drive an Audi which had been stolen during a burglary in Cheadle two weeks earlier. When Muir was arrested, police found 'lock picks' used to break into vehicles as well as £4,500 in cash. When cops arrested Dean Stanway, who at the time he was touring affluent areas looking for valuables to steal had been released under investigation over the earlier robberies, he insisted his travels were only to source cannabis, according to Mr Bowker.
Muir ended up in even more trouble with the law because, when investigators analysed his mobile phone, they found incriminating messages which revealed he had been dealing in class A and B drugs, cocaine and cannabis. A fifth member of the gang, Luke Farry, was found in a VW Golf worth £12,000 which had been stolen in a burglary in Cheadle Hulme two months earlier.
The car sped off when police became suspicious and and Farry was arrested after it crashed into a pole. He ran off but was identified by dashcam footage. False plates had been stuck onto the vehicle. He had no licence or insurance.
Farry had also travelled to Leeds to a dealer to sell the £40,000 Rolex which had been stolen during one of the Hale robberies.
All five members of the gang were career criminals. Dean Stanway had 15 sets of previous convictions for 23 crimes including burglary. He was under a supervision order when he took part in the robberies. Gary Stanway had 14 previous convictions mainly for offences involving dishonesty but also conspiracy to steal cars and burglary. He was out of prison on licence at the time of the robberies, the court was told.
Luke Farry had 37 previous convictions to his name including for theft and violence while Nathan Muir had 36 previous convictions including robbery. Joshua Sharkey had 64 previous convictions including robbery and burglary.
David Toal, defending Dean Stanway, said no violence was actually used in either robbery, and that the victim of one of the attacks had noted a 'reluctance' to use violence. He said although his client had toured affluent areas looking for valuables to steal, nothing was actually stolen.
He said his client had become a father for the first time in November and added that prison time would be that much harder for him as he had suffered a brain injury in an accident in 2018. Damian Nolan, representing Gary Stanway, stressed the crimes committed by his client, a father-of-two children aged 11 and four, were a 'group activity', and he was not solely responsible.
Peter Gilmour, defending Luke Farry, said his client had travelled to Leeds to dispose of a watch but he insisted the defendant had not known violence was to be used to obtain it. Farry hoped to go straight and worked for his brother's gardening company, the court was told.
Mark Savage, defending Joshua Sharkey, also pointed out nothing was stolen when his client was touring affluent areas searching for valuables to take. The father of a boy aged seven, Sharkey was said to have vowed never to return to a life of crime when the lad told him: "Why are you not at home for Christmas? Why are you not home for my birthday? This is your fault."
Adam Roxborough, defending Nathan Muir, said there was 'nothing remotely sophisticated' about his client's drug dealing. He pointed out the phone on which incriminating evidence was found was not encrypted. Muir, he said, had been diagnosed with ADHD and suffered depression.
Sentencing the men, Judge Tina Landale told them: "All of the offences are serious because they demonstrate an organised and determined attempt to dishonestly enrich yourselves."
She said the woman whose wedding ring the Stanway brothers had attempted to take had 'suffered terribly'. She pointed out the victim of the second robbery had 'struggled to defend himself'.
"It's properly described as a terrifying attack," said the judge.
- Dean Stanway, 30, of Wythenshawe, was jailed for seven-and-a-half years after he admitted two charges of conspiracy to rob, conspiracy to steal from cars and two offences of handling stolen goods
- Gary Stanway, 21, also of Wythenshawe, was jailed for five-and-a-half years after he admitted two counts of conspiracy to rob
- Luke Farry, 30, of Weller Avenue in Chorlton, was jailed for three years after he admitted conspiracy to rob and handling a stolen car
- Nathan Muir, 28, of no fixed abode, was jailed for five-and-a-half years after he admitted supplying class A and B drugs, conspiracy to steal, handling a stolen Audi and driving while disqualified
- Joshua Sharkey, 32, of Ferndown Road in Wythenshawe, was jailed for 14 months after he admitted conspiracy to steal
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