Merseyside’s career criminals who can’t stop offending

For many people, one experience in a dock at court is enough to haunt them for a lifetime.

For others, Liverpool Crown Court has become something of a second home to them with the amount of times they have appeared before a judge. Over the last year Liverpool’s courts have seen dozens of people whose records of offences run into double and triple figures.

These people just can’t seem to stop offending, no matter how many times they are given custodial sentences. Here are some of the worst repeat offenders we have seen over the last year in Liverpool’s Crown and Magistrates courts.

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Phillip Jones

A burglar was caught out after leaving a trail of blood in a Chinese buffet restaurant he broke into.

Phillip Jones was then locked in a convenience store by a brave shop worker after he raided the premises at knifepoint. To round off his crime spree, he burgled a Lidl supermarket to pilfer booze on three separate occasions.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that the first in a spate of incidents came on February 21 this year when the 40-year-old, of Windfield Green in Garston, targeted the Chinese Buffet in Speke. Kenneth Grant, prosecuting, described how Jones broke in and stole a quantity of cash from the premises – but was linked to the incident after his blood was discovered on cables at the back of the till.

Then came three burglaries at the Lidl store on St Mary’s Road in Garston. At 2.15am on March 12, the defendant and an accomplice forced the front doors open and filled carrier bags up with bottles of spirits before leaving. They both returned at 1.15am, the following day and repeated their crimes.

Jones then broke in alone once again at 9pm to steal more alcohol. A total of £1,925.35 of goods were taken from the supermarket, with the offender being recognised in CCTV footage by a police officer.

Just under five months later, employee Joshua Johnson was cashing up at Abi Mini Market on Warwick Street in Dingle shortly before 11pm on August 8. He had the shutters halfway down but heard someone kicking at the door.

Jones, who appeared via video link from HMP Altcourse, has 29 previous convictions for 79 offences. Jones admitted four counts of burglary, one of robbery and a charge of possession of a bladed article in a public place. He was jailed for 52 months.

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Peter Bennett

A knife-wielding robber raided the same shop twice within the space of a week while the same terrified worker was on duty alone.

Peter Bennett targeted the Go Local Extra store in Bootle on two occasions in four days, stealing hundreds of pounds in cash from the till. The employee who was on shift during both incidents was left “fearing for his life” as a result and had to quit his role.

Bennett was subsequently arrested on May 20. The court heard of his staggering record of 51 previous convictions for 112 offences, dating back to 1994 and including a count of robbery in 2014 for which he received 27 months behind bars.

He admitted two counts of robbery earlier this year and was jailed for seven-and-a-half years.

Paul Whitney

The leader of a notorious crime family said “it’s my birthday, this is a joke” when police raided his home.

Paul Whitney was previously jailed as the ringleader of the Whitney gang, a family drugs ring which flooded the city’s streets with heroin and crack cocaine. And he is now facing yet another lengthy spell behind bars for trafficking huge quantities of illicit substances under the pseudonym ‘Bullet Hawk’.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that this was the handle the 44-year-old used on encrypted communications platform EncroChat. Jamie Baxter, prosecuting, described how Whitney had a “network of couriers and drivers” at his disposal to collect drugs and cash on his behalf.

After the authorities gained access to the underground messaging service, officers executed a search warrant at his house on Clocktower Drive in Walton on March 30 last year – his 43rd birthday. On this occasion, Whitney answered the door and replied: “It’s my birthday, this is a joke.”

Merseyside Police seized £600 in cash, a quantity of cannabis and several expensive motorbikes during the raid. A previous visit in August 2020 had unearthed monies totalling £15,000 in a locked cupboard, as well as a number of high value goods.

The court heard that Whitney had been involved in the supply of at least 4kg of heroin, 1kg of cocaine, 30kg of cannabis and 2kg of ketamine. It had previously been suspected that he may have been concerned in the supply of up to 83kg of class A drugs alone.

The handles of 38 other service users had been stored in his Encro phone, and he was found to have been in contact with around half of these. Whitney – who appeared via video link to HMP Liverpool – has 12 previous convictions for 34 offences, including receiving five years for supplying class A drugs in 2001.

In 2011, he was locked up for nine years and four months for conspiracy to supply heroin and crack cocaine. The then 32-year-old defendant – who was living in Fazakerley – was described as being the boss of the Whitney family, which peddled drugs next to school playgrounds and lived a life of luxury off the back of it.

Relatives and associates had spent years at the top of a massive Anfield-based criminal network, with a stranglehold across much of Liverpool. They made selling heroin and crack cocaine a 24-hour business, running a cash and carry-style operation – with 13 members of the gang ultimately handed 82 years in total.

Craig Meddings

A Morrisons security guard stole £2,700 of cigarettes after hiding them in his podium at the front of the store. Craig Meddings has nine previous convictions for 13 offences, including six thefts between 2006 and 2017.

But he got a job as a security guard at Morrisons in Speke , where he helped himself to 5,000 cigarettes. He pleaded guilty to five counts of theft by employee.

The judge handed Meddings 12 months in jail, suspended for two years, with a 12-day Rehabilitation Activity Requirement and 180 hours of unpaid work. He ordered him to pay £2,700 back to Morrisons in compensation, plus £425 court costs, and warned him if he ignored these orders it was “at your peril”.

Luke Browne

Luke Browne pulled a machete from his trousers when he was refused entry to a nightclub.

The 31-year-old has plagued pubs, bars and nightclubs across Birkenhead with violent and anti-social behaviour. A court heard this has included Browne and gangs of masked youths “intimidating” staff and customers.

He was previously spared jail after he hurled a metal beer keg at the head of Elsa Frost, aka internet personality ‘Banter Dancing Queen’, at Mr Whites sports bar. But last October 25 the yob – who has 60 previous convictions for a staggering 106 offences – tried to get into Platinum Bar with a machete, at around 2.40am.

Browne, of Paterson Street, Birkenhead, admitted possessing a bladed article and breaching a suspended sentence. He was jailed for two years.

Janine Clough

Janine Clough slashed the manager of a Lidl store when she was caught stealing a trolley full of meat.

The 43-year-old is one of Liverpool’s most prolific shoplifters and was once banned from the city centre. A judge said her “staggering” criminal record now features 70 previous convictions for 236 offences.

While high on crack cocaine and armed with a broken coffee jar, she sliced through her victim’s uniform, leaving him with three wounds to his back. Clough, of Liverpool Road, Huyton, struck at the Lidl store in Kensington and shoplifted £140 of meat, at around 9pm, on July 24 last year.

She pleaded guilty to theft, possessing an offensive weapon and assault causing actual bodily harm. Clough was jailed for two years and 11 months.

Paul McFadden

A cruel conman stole hundreds of pounds from a bereaved pensioner on the day her husband died.

Paul McFadden was locked up this week over a “despicable” 14-month campaign of fraud, which saw him steal more than £100,000 from his elderly victim. His swindle continued even after his victim Elizabeth Cain died, leaving her with less than £100 to her name.

The 39-year-old even targeted the OAP on the day her husband Terence died. This saw him make three £500 bank transfers out of her account and into his own.

And in the period between Mr Cain’s death and his funeral, McFadden cold-heartedly stole a total of £11,800 from the widow. His thieving continued while Mrs Cain spent her final days in hospital.

A week after she was admitted, he helped himself to £157 of her savings. Another three days later, McFadden pinched another £16.99.

He began his offending by transferring sums of £50 from Mrs Cain’s account to himself, but gradually doubled the amounts to the point where they reached £2,000. The thief made up to 32 transactions per day, with the highest figure stolen in one 24-hour period reaching £4,000.

Liverpool Crown Court was told that McFadden was one of three carers appointed by agency Be Caring to tend to her and her husband – both of whom were then aged 78 – in 2019 after she suffered a fall and a deterioration in her health. Mrs Cain had previously been her partner’s primary carer after he suffered a severe stroke in 2006.

McFadden has 11 previous convictions for 27 offences between 2007 and 2020, including for handling stolen goods and drug offences.

Sean Clamp

A robber told staff “I’m a nice guy” after holding up a bookmakers and a pharmacy armed with a length of pipe which he attempted to pass off as a gun.

Sean Clamp silently handed staff a note bearing the words “give me money and no-one will get hurt”, while another worker was left so terrified that she fell off her chair. The “career criminal” made less than £100 from the two raids, which were both carried out on the same evening.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that a man wearing a motorbike helmet entered the branch of William Hill at Bootle New Strand shortly before 5pm on July 12 this year. Paul Blasbery, prosecuting, described how Donna McDonald was working in the bookies when he “took out an object she thought was a gun” wrapped in a white plastic bag.

Clamp, of Bowland Drive in Litherland, told her “give us your money”. She was left “terrified the male was going to fire the weapon at her” and fell off her chair as a result, before she and a colleague fled to the safe room and locked themselves in.

The 33-year-old attacker then left the store empty-handed. But at around 6pm, he struck again at Park Street Pharmacy. He was arrested on this street shortly after 9.15pm while riding a bike.

Clamp, who appeared via video link to HMP Liverpool, has a staggering 111 previous convictions for 233 offences. He admitted robbery, attempted robbery and possession of a firearm with intent to commit an indictable offence and was jailed for five years.

Robert Saxon

A thug who subjected his partner to a 12-hour assault has a record for violent crime stretching back more than three decades.

Robert Saxon was jailed for two and a half years earlier this week for an assault on his then girlfriend which saw him headbutt, kick, and punch her. He also grabbed her by the neck so hard she couldn’t breath, bit her and forced his fingers into her eye sockets during the attack in Warrington earlier this year.

A judge at Liverpool Crown Court said there appeared to be little chance of the 50-year-old changing his ways as he keeps on committing crime “year in, year out”. The court heard Saxon has 61 previous convictions for 146 offences going all the way back to the late 1980s.

Beginning when he was a youth, Saxon has committed violent crimes at various points throughout his life. They include multiple assaults in the 1990s and 2000s and even a wounding in 2017 that saw him receive a three-year jail term.

His latest victim said in a statement to the court he continued to threaten her after she reported him, with Saxon telling her that he would kill her if he went to prison for a long time and that if she got a new partner he would kill them as well.

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