Jailed: Rugby robbers who left a trail of evidence - including cut outs from their homemade balaclavas

Two Rugby robbers were caught after leaving a trail of evidence - which included the cut-outs from their homemade balaclavas.

Following the terrifying robbery, an off-duty police officer chased the pair back to a house in Ashlawn Road where Bale and Evans barricaded themselves in the downstairs toilet.

Daniel Bale and Karl Evans targeted a petrol station in Hillmorton Road, Rugby. CCTV showed Bale going into the shop and aggressively waving his arms at a member of staff who retreated into the back office for safety.

He then grabbed around £300 from the till and £70 worth of cigarettes. Evans was seen on CCTV outside the shop acting as a lookout.

After they were chased by the off-duty officer, officers attended to arrest them and found the stolen items in the washing machine.

The pair wore homemade balaclavas during the robbery and officers found the bits of material cut out to make eyeholes in a pair of hats and the scissors they used.

Daniel Bale, 37, of Station Road, Maidstone, Kent, and Karl Evans, 34, of Ashlawn Road, Rugby had previously pleaded guilty to robbery which happened on the morning of May 8, 2022.

At Warwick Crown Court last week, Bale was handed a three-year-and-five-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to robbery and failing to surrender to police at the appointed time.

Evans was jailed last year for his role in the robbery. He received a prison sentence of 20 months after pleading guilty to robbery and failing to surrender to police at the appointed time.

PC Maddie Hodgkins-Warren, who led the investigation, said: “Evans and Bale are certainly not criminal masterminds; they left a trail of evidence that made it very difficult for them to do anything other than plead guilty. However, it must have been an extremely frightening ordeal for the victim. Thankfully he wasn’t hurt and the quick thinking of a passing off duty police officer meant the pair were quickly identified as suspects and arrested.”