Jail for Oxford knifepoint mugger who went on 24-hour spree

Daniel Hone, 33, who on Friday (October 20) asked for another 19 offences to be taken into consideration by the judge, had held a knife to his first victim’s throat on West Way, Botley, and snaffled £4 in loose change from his pockets.

The following morning, he burgled a home in Sandford on Thames and used the bank cards he stole to pay for a breakfast feast in McDonald’s.

And later that day, on May 22, he robbed a store assistant at the Co-op in Botley after his attempt to walk out the store with a basketful of alcohol was interrupted by staff members.

READ MORE: The baby-faced robber who feasted at McDonald's

Daniel Hone was caught on camera at the Co-op in Botley Picture: Thames Valley Police (Image: Thames Valley Police)

Hone, who admitted charges of robbery and burglary earlier this week, held his head in his hands as he would be going to prison for nine years.

Sentencing, Recorder Alexander McGregor said of the knifepoint mugging: “Holding a knife to his neck was a very wicked thing to do indeed.”

He added: “You held that knife to the victim’s neck to put him in fear. I consider that to be almost as serious as any threat of violence during a robbery could be.”

Hone had to be persuaded back into his seat in the prison video link room, after making as if to leave and muttering it was a ‘f***ing joke’.

The knifepoint mugging was committed on the West Way, Botley Picture: Oxford Mail (Image: Oxford Mail)

Earlier, prosecutor Oliver Weetch suggested that the 69-year-old mugging victim may have been targeted.

“It would have been obvious he was of some age. The Crown say to that extent he was a vulnerable and obvious target – and he was targeted by this defendant,” the prosecutor said.

In a victim personal statement, one of the staff members targeted during the robbery at the Co-op said: “I do not come to work to get assaulted.”

The judge, Recorder McGregor, noted: “They were clearly scared they would come to some serious harm.”

Hone, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty part-way through his trial earlier this week to robbery and burglary.

He was convicted at the magistrates’ court of possession of a bladed article, a multi-tool knife found on him when he was arrested. He pleaded guilty to two counts of fraudulent use of the bank cards.

On Friday, career crook Hone asked the judge to take a further 19 crimes into consideration, including five house break-ins. By wiping the slate clean and asking for the offences to be taken into consideration, Hone cannot later be charged with the crimes.

The offences were committed on licence, with Hone released early from an almost two year jail sentence imposed at the crown court last October for using stolen bank cards.

Defending, Gareth James accepted his client had an ‘unattractive’ criminal record. “Over the last 20 years, almost, he has been committing acquisitive offending,” he added.

“He is a gentleman who unfortunately had developed in his youth an addiction to class A drugs and committed crimes and continued to commit crimes up until his arrest in May this year in order to feed that habit.

“It is, unfortunately, the age-old story.”

Daniel Hone, who has been jailed for nine years Picture: Thames Valley Police (Image: Thames Valley Police)

He suggested that the burglary was opportunistic, with CCTV showing him trying door handles. The victim’s door was left open, it was said, and Hone took his chance.

And the robbery at the Co-op began as a shoplifting, he said. “What it perhaps demonstrates is the acquisition of relatively high value goods. Alcohol is stolen to sell to gain money to feed the underlying drug habit, which is significant.”

Mr James told the court: “He realises what he did was offending which is inexcusable.

“He realises he has put himself into the position where he is going to receive a further custodial sentence and is intending to rebuild his life away from the unfortunate affliction that drugs bring so many people in their lives.”