Armed robber, 66, who walked out of an open prison 12 years ago is finally caught after he was found living 50 miles away under false name
- Gary Crafts, 66, was jailed for life on armed robbery and firearm charges in 2000
- He escaped from Standford Hill open prison on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent in 2008
- The former getaway driver was found living in London and arrested in August
An armed robber and getaway driver who walked out of an open prison 12 years ago has been finally caught after he was found living 50 miles away under a false name.
Gary Crafts, 66, was convicted of an armed robbery and firearms charges and jailed for life in 2000.
In 2008 he was vanished from Standford Hill open prison on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent.
At the time of the offence Crafts was on parole, after he had been jailed for 17 years for a spate of armed robberies that saw him steal £11,000.
Some 12 years after he disappeared, Crafts was found living under a different name in Plumstead, South East London, on August 7.
Gary Crafts escaped from Standford Hill open prison on the Isle of Sheppey in 2008 while serving a life sentence for armed robbery
Crafts was jailed for life in 2000 under the ‘two strikes and you’re out’ law, which had been introduced three years earlier, after being convicted of attempted robbery and one firearm charge.
He had acted as the getaway driver for an attempted raid on a Halifax bank in Richmond, west London, alongside fellow crook, Danny Harris.
The pair were under police surveillance when they arrived and Flying Squad officers swooped to arrest them after watching Harris approach the cashier at the bank armed with a pistol.
Crafts, of Plumstead, south east London, was on parole following his release from a 17-year sentence for a spate of armed robberies in the early 1990s.
During his spree, Harris stole around £11,000 in raids on six banks and building society branches across west London and Surrey.
After being on the run for 12 years, Crafts was arrested on August 7 and charged with being unlawfully at large before being returned to prison.
The Ministry of Justice would not confirm which prison Crafts had been sent back to, but did say that like any other absconder, he would be sent back to a closed jail rather than an open facility.
A spokesman for Kent Police said after Crafts was arrested: ‘Gary Crafts was convicted of an armed robbery in 1999 and was at Stanford Hill prison when he absconded in 2008.
‘Following extensive enquiries across the UK investigators identified he was living under a false name in London.
‘Crafts was arrested on August 7, 2020, and was charged with being unlawfully at large before being returned to prison.
‘Kent Police’s Wanted Person Bureau works with partner agencies to track down suspects sought for questioning in relation to serious offences in the UK and abroad, offenders who are to be recalled to prison and those who have absconded from prison and are unlawfully at large.’
In 2000, three appeal court judges effectively overruled the ‘two strikes’ law that saw offenders receive life sentences for committing a second crime such as attempted murder, rape, manslaughter, wounding or causing grievous bodily harm with intent and robbery because it was incompatible with the Human Rights Act.