Callum Vardy and Oliver Wharton jailed for violence in Acomb

Callum Thomas Vardy, formerly known as Callum Tooley, yelled “Give me the money or I will …… stab you” at a petrified shop assistant, said Dan Cordey, prosecuting.

As a small child watched, he held the knife against the employee’s stomach in the Co-op's Beckfield Lane store in Acomb.

The woman told York Crown Court: “My life flashed in front of my eyes ….I thought I was going to die.”

She said her finger was cut during the robbery.

Callum Thomas Vardy, formerly Callum Tooley (left) and Oliver Duke Wharton (right) (Image: North Yorkshire Police)

Mr Cordey said Vardy was on bail at the time for a 5am burglary with accomplice Oliver Duke Wharton during which both men invaded the couple’s bedroom.

Between them the burglars grabbed a machete-like ornamental knife in the house and warned the householder and his partner: “If you grass, we will stab you.”

The court heard a neighbour saw three men in dark clothing run from the house.

Vardy, 27, of Woodlea Avenue, Acomb, and Wharton, 27, of Clifton, York, both pleaded guilty to burglary and Vardy also pleaded guilty to robbery, carrying a knife and a shop theft.

Both men have long records for violence and other offences.

Callum Thomas Vardy formerly Callum Tooley (Image: North Yorkshire Police)

Ten years ago, when he was 17 and entitled to anonymity, a judge was so concerned about his violent ways that had led to a boy being a coma for days, he allowed the media to name Vardy. 

Jailing him for six years for the robbery and burglary, Judge Simon Hickey said the robbery had changed the shop assistant’s life, affected her work, her university grades, changed her choice of career and left her on medication for anxiety and sleeping problems.

Vardy hid his face with his hands as she read out a personal statement.

His barrister Glenn Parsons said Vardy was a heavy heroin and crack cocaine user at the time and spent his days finding money to buy drugs or pay debts. 

Since being remanded he had kicked his habit.

Oliver Duke Wharton (Image: North Yorkshire Police)

Wharton, who has previous convictions for house burglary including one for which he was jailed for 54 months, was given a 876-day prison sentence.

Following his arrest he was recalled to finish serving a two-year sentence for mugging a security guard at a city council car park.

Derek Duffy, for Wharton, said he had been so high on drugs when he carried out the burglary he couldn’t remember it.

Mr Cordey said Vardy got behind the counter of the Co-op store  late on May 20, 2022, when the child and her father were being served.

Vardy had his hood up and demanded money, showing his knife. He pushed the sales assistant, and she yelled to a colleague for help.

She told the court she was in a “blind panic” but was concerned for the little girl.

The colleague tried to calm Vardy down. The robber grabbed £100 from the till and some cigarettes and fled, but was recognised from the shop’s CCTV by police and arrested.

Mr Cordey said the sleeping couple were awoken by a noise as Vardy and Wharton climbed in through a window of their Acomb home in February 2021.

Both men came into their bedroom before searching the living room. The householder yelled for help out of the opened window and Vardy punched him in the face as the burglars fled with £400 in cash and the machete like knife.