Five robbers have been jailed for almost 25 years after an incident in Edgware in 2017.

Salman Osman, 18 (13.07.01) of Five Acre, NW9; Adnaan Yusuf, 18 (23.12.00) of Highmeadow Crescent, NW9; Abdillahi Isse, 18 (25.03.01) of Sandymount Avenue, HA7; Akram Oumar, 21 (09.08.98) and Amjad Oumar, 19 (03.09.99) both of Argyle Road, HA2, were sentenced on Thursday, 8 August at Harrow Crown Court.

Osman, Yusuf and Isse will serve four and a half years for robbery and 12 months for possessing two bladed articles, to run concurrently. Akram Oumar and Amjad Oumar will serve five and a half years for robbery and 12 months for possession of a bladed article, to run concurrently.

In total all five will serve a combined 24 and a half years in prison.

They were jailed for their part in a robbery that took place on Monday, 18 September 2017, on Hay Lane. At 20:38hrs the group burst into the shop threatening and shouting at two shop assistants.

They demanded money from the cash register and two of them went behind the counter and stole £600 worth of cigarettes and alcohol, while the other members stood watch and held the two shop assistants at knife-point.
As they left the store, one of the frightened shop assistants hit the panic button to notify police. Unbeknownst to the robbers, a member of public had seen them enter the store wearing masks and carrying weapons and had also called police.

They fled and turned down a residential road; a member of public who witnessed the incident pointed officers in the right direction and the group were apprehended.

Clothing and knives used during the incident were recovered nearby in bins and down drains, these matched what was in CCTV footage. A few days later, two more knives used during the attack were found down a drain by a local resident.

Detectives used witness reports and forensics to complete the investigation; items of clothing including masks, gloves and knives were all recovered and matched to each criminal via DNA matches.

All five were unanimously found guilty by a jury at Harrow Crown Court on Thursday, 27 June.