Addicted to crime

Gimme the money,” Pablo said to the building society cashier while he pointed the gun at her, wearing a balaclava.

Pablo was surprised when she answered him sarcastically, and he felt she was being deliberately slow while she put the money in the bag, so Pablo then pointed the gun at another cashier and told the sarcastic one that if she didn’t hurry up he would shoot her colleague.

Pablo didn’t enjoy doing armed robberies and says that they made him feel fearful. But he was driven to do them by his addiction to heroin, and he also sometimes took cannabis, methadone, speed, Valium, ecstasy and LSD.

He ended up getting arrested by the Flying Squad and was found guilty of six armed robberies, three attempted robberies and nine counts of possessing a firearm. The crimes were committed against building societies, post offices and shops. He was sentenced to a total of 67 years, though the sentences were to run concurrently, which meant he was serving a sentence of 12 year...