A WEM teenager who took a knife to an attempted robbery in Shrewsbury has been jailed for more than five years.

Jake Jones, 19, from Lowe Hill Road, led two fiends – Callum Evans from Oswestry and Billy Hethrington from Bomere Heath – to rob drugs and money from Luke Warwick's residence in Yew Tree Close, Shrewsbury in May this year.

Neither Evans or Hethrington were aware that Jones had a knife and Judge Peter Barrie – sentencing the trip at Shrewsbury Crown Court on Friday – identified the Wem man as the ringleader.

The court heard that all three men made their way tot the property at around 11pm on May 15, 2020, with the intention of stealing drugs and money, while Jones wanted to accost Mr Warwick, believing he had stolen drugs from a friend earlier that day.

When they broke into the house, Jones was heard to demand 'everything', and also stole two mobile phones from Warwick's friends, initially stealing three before Evans told him to drop them.

On sentencing him to five years and three months for four counts of robbery and attempted robbery, Judge Barrie said his previous record of non-violent behaviour counted in his favour.

"It’s clear that you took the lead in taking the decision to go to Luke Warwick’s house with a knife and hoped that you could extract money and drugs from him," he said.

"In order to do that, you took a knife and Billy Hetherington took a pole.

"You intended to use the knife to intimidate and scare Luke Warwick and now I have to deal with you on four counts.

"It was a shock to your victims, especially as you broke in late at night, and this has to be taken into consideration.

"You intended to rob [Luke], but the other three counts were opportunistic.

"Although you’ve been in trouble before and were in breach of a conditional order, you have no previous violent behaviour. It makes it incredible that you set about this enterprise at all.

"You are a care leaver, aged 19 and troubled, which adds to your credit because you’ve not committed any violence before.

Taking into the guidelines and other aggravating incidents, the overall starting point would be a sentence of seven years.

"You are entitled to credit which reduces it further so count one is five years and three months, and on counts two to four, four years each, concurrent with count one, in a young offenders institute."

Evans and Hethrington each received more than three years and all three men will serve half on licence.