A TEENAGER, who helped his father in an armed robbery at Boston Spa post office both dressed has women, has been sent to a young offender institution for eight years.

Sentencing Declan Pick at Leeds Crown Court on Friday, Judge Tom Bayliss QC said he accepted he had fallen under the “malign influence of his father and uncle".

The court heard Declan Pick was 17 when, wearing a long red wig and hat, he pushed his father Martin in disguise and in a wheelchair, into the post office near Wetherby on the morning of March 23 last year.

Once inside Martin jumped to his feet, producing a shotgun, while the teenager pointed a handgun towards the sub-postmaster Anthony Williams.

They demanded money after jumping on the counter and Martin Pick took cash from a till, shoving it inside a woman’s handbag taken with them.

The court heard during the raid Mr Williams believed the trigger was pulled on the handgun by Declan in panic although no missile was fired before they fled.

Once outside shoppers and other members of the public tried to stop the pair escaping to a getaway car, driven by the teenager’s uncle Mark Pick, and Mr Williams bravely tackled Martin who then began striking him with a crowbar until a woman took it from him.

One of the raiders from the car then fired the shotgun, enabling Martin Pick to get to the car, and the trio escaped but they left behind the money, wigs and a pair of sunglasses which led to their arrest through DNA.

Martin Pick, who had previous convictions for robbery, was jailed for 18 years earlier this week for the robbery and possessing an imitation firearm with intent. Mark Pick who was convicted by a jury of the same offences was jailed for 16 years.

Kate Batty, representing Declan Pick, said his mother had done her best to keep him away from the influence of his father from a young age and appeared to be succeeding.

He had been doing well, leaving school with GCSEs and doing a course in mechanics at college. “This was not a young man who set his stall out to be just like his father.”

But, she said, because of his immaturity and youth he did not have the emotional strength to sever all contacts with his father and “rightly or wrongly sought his approval".

His “massive regret” was that had taken the form it had. Although he and his uncle had denied the offences and had a trial, he now accepted he was involved in the robbery but Mrs Batty told the court there was no proof it was he who fired the shotgun outside the post office.

Declan Pick, now 18, of Esthwaite Gardens, Halton Moor, Leeds was found guilty of the robbery and possessing an imitation firearm with intent.

Judge Bayliss said: “You had everything going for you; your mother warned you about associating with your father and uncle, you told police that at interview, but you ignored that advice. You thought you knew better and now you fall to be sentenced for an offence of robbery and one in which an imitation firearm which was capable of firing blank cartridges was fired.”

He said the offence was well planned, with disguises, weapons and a stolen getaway car which was later set on fire but it was foiled by the bravery and pluck of Mr Williams and other villagers in Boston Spa who only desisted when the shotgun was fired. “I cannot be sure who by.”

He was satisfied Martin Pick was the ringleader, that Mark Pick played a crucial role “and without your relationship, you would not have been involved and that is a highly significant feature in your case.”

But he had to be sentenced for what he did. “You have thrown it all away, your passion for mechanics, your future, your relationship with your girlfriend, your good name, just to get involved in a robbery with your father.”