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'Skull Cracker' Michael Wheatley has been sentenced to life behind bars after holding up a Sunbury building society with a gun just days after he absconded from an open prison.

The 55-year-old was given another life tariff, in addition to the one he received in 2002 for a series of armed bank robberies, at Guildford Crown Court on Thursday for robbing the Chelsea Building Society in Staines Road at around 10.20am on Wednesday May 7.

Wheatley, who appeared via video link, threatened staff with a gun and made off with more than £18,000 four days after he failed to return from day release to Standford Hill open prison on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent where he was serving a life sentence.

Nicknamed the 'Skull Cracker' - for pistol-whipping victims in previous robberies - Wheatley admitted robbery, possession of a firearm or imitation firearm and being unlawfully at large when he appeared in court on Thursday morning before re-appearing a few hours later to be sentenced by Judge Christopher Critchlow.

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"I've reviewed the CCTV footage and it shows the affect on the deputy manager of being subjected to your violence with a firearm," said the judge as he sentenced Wheatley to life with a minimum term of 10 years.

"The seriousness is plain to all who have seen that CCTV," he added. "You therefore deliberately targeted this branch and planned this raid.

"You knew exactly what you were doing, having committed such crimes so many times.

"That you should go out and deliberately decide to rob a building society suggests a grave risk to the public. It is clear the public must be protected from you for a long time."

The court was told that Wheatley had robbed the branch before, in 2001, when it was in the building next door to its current location.

Gun pointed at head

The robbery was one of a string of offences for which he was given a life jail sentence in October 2002 at the Old Bailey, with a minimum tariff of seven years and 212 days.

An hour before the robbery, Wheatley entered the branch and spoke to deputy manager, Christopher Gurdev, about opening an account, a technique he used in previous offences the court was told.

Prosecutor Dale Sullivan said Wheatley claimed he had just returned from spending 20 years in Ireland.

"At 10.15am he walked back in. He said he thought he would have a problem getting proof of address," said the prosecutor.

As he was about to leave, Mr Sullivan told the judge Wheatley said "one more thing" before pulling out a handgun from his jacket and pointing it at the deputy manager's head.

Wheatley then pushed Mr Gurdev to the back of the branch and forced him to open the door to a private area before demanding around £7,000 from cashiers. He eventually made off with £18,350, of which all but £850 was recovered.

According to the prosecutor, Wheatley left a newspaper at the scene with his fingerprint on it.

"Armed officers located the defendant at 2.15pm and he was arrested in Tower Hamlets," he said.

Mr Sullivan also told the court: "The manager had briefed her staff the night before about Wheatley, telling them to be aware of him because of the media coverage and his failure to return to Standford Hill."

The court also went through the Wheatley's record, which includes 23 robberies, two attempted robberies and 18 offences involving firearms with offences dating back to 1973 when he was just 13-years-old.

"Basically for the last 30 years he's been committing robberies with firearms," commented Judge Critchlow.

Wheatley's solicitor, Lionel Blackman, said his client had spent 46 years of his life "confined in one institution or another".

He said Wheatley's adopted mother was unable to look after him, forcing him to go into go into residential care, which he ran away from at 13 having been abused.

Mr Blackman said: "He was undertaking therapy [at HMP Elmley] to deal with earlier childhood issues which have scarred his life and was making progress.

"In July last year it stopped because of funding cuts. He was told that by the prison authorities and therapist with whom he had been working."

After a failed bid for parole three months later, he was moved to Standford Hill open prison, a change Mr Blackman described as "unhelpful".

"He did not have the extended support he found in closed prison," he told the court. "He was given day release to visit a town with some spending money as part of the steps to those accustomed to long term prisoners adjust to life on the outside.

"Without the therapy he had been improving himself with, without that supportive help he had been accustomed, to being left to his own devices in an open prison.

"Not seeing on the horizon, another review to determine prospect of release, being disappointed not to achieve it [parole] after seven-and-a-half years or at 13 years, he made the decision not to return to prison at all."

Wheatley told his solicitor he was planning to start a new life in Ireland and committed the robbery to finance the trip.

Handing down the sentence, Judge Critchlow told Wheatley his was a "special case" - due to his prolific and violent record - before issuing a sentence of life with a minimum term of 10 years.

Afterwards, a spokesman for Chelsea Building Society said: "We are pleased Michael Wheatley has been brought to justice. Staff at the Sunbury branch were understandably shaken and upset by the incident but the branch has reopened and is operating as normal.”