Two robbers who carried out three terrifying armed raids on Leicestershire supermarkets have been jailed.
Carl Latham (39) and Nathan Crewe (25) burst into the shops wearing masks and carrying a machete and a crowbar.
They did not speak to the terrified staff but pushed past them to prise the tills open stealing thousands of pounds.
Latham, of Keswick Close, Glen Parva, was jailed for eight years and Crewe, of Braybrooke Road, Northfields, Leicester, was sent to prison for five years and four months when they appeared at Leicester Crown Court.
James Thomas, prosecuting, said that Latham was on day release from a life sentence when he and Crewe went into the Spar shop in Market Harborough on January 29 last year.
He said: "They walked behind the counter and prised open the till with the machete and stole cash."
Two weeks later they went into the Midland Co-op in Ratby at 8pm and jumped over the counter and stole the money from the till.
Two days after that they jumped over the counter at the Sainsbury's in Wigston.
He added: "In all they stole just over £4,000 from the three shops."
He said the men had been caught on CCTV at all three shops but they could not be recognised because they were wearing balaclavas or scarves as masks. He said they were tracked down by fingerprints and a bag left behind.
He told the court that Latham had been jailed for robbery before and was on day release from prison after being jailed for life in 2000 for attacking a milkman and stabbing him three times with a screwdriver after stealing his takings.
Latham and Crewe both admitted the armed robberies at the Spar on January 29, the Midlands Co-op on February 13 and Sainsbury's on February 15 last year.
Laban Leake for Latham said his client had got frustrated with the prison system.
He said Latham had served 12 years on a life sentence where the minimum tariff was six and a half years.
He said: "He thought the best solution was not to return to prison. But the lack of structure while outside led him back to committing offences."
He said that his client's psychiatrist had asked the court "not to give up on him".
Mr Leake said the court should appreciate that Latham had not used the weapons they were carrying "although I accept there was an implicit threat."
Sally Bamford, for Crewe, who also had previous convictions, said: "My client accepted early on that he had committed the offences and accepted his responsibility last year."
She said that while on remand he had undertaken courses and was determined to improve his literacy and numeracy.
She asked the judge to take into consideration his early guilty plea.
Sentencing the men Judge Michael Pert told Latham: "These are very serious offences. I am drawn to the conclusion that they were planned and that you intended to commit the first robbery before you went on day release."
He said Latham should be sentenced to nine years but he cut a year off for his guilty plea made on the day his trial was due to begin.
He sentenced Crewe to a total of 64 months in prison taking into consideration his early guilty plea.
