Southend crook Mitchell Rudkin jailed for armed robbery

The victim was left terrified after Mitchell Rudkin pounced as she got out of a taxi outside her Southend home in broad daylight at 4pm on May 13 this year, Basildon Crown Court heard.

Kuljeet Dobe, prosecuting, said some of the harrowing attack was captured on CCTV.

He said: "As she approaches her front door, at that point we see the defendant run from the neighbouring doorway, shouting at her 'armed police get on the floor now' while pointing a black handgun at her.

"She obviously complies. She was very scared and she described in her (interview) what happened.

"What she says is he flung me on the floor, screaming at me and he put a gun to my head saying 'you got the money, the parcel?'"

The court heard police believed it was a targeted attack and that drug addict and alcoholic Rudkin, 51, who has 26 convictions for about 50 offences, knew when she would be arriving home, in the Wimborne Road area.

However, the victim had just £2.50 on her.

The court heard the cab driver also came over to try to intervene.

Mr Dobe added: "She said 'he screamed at me let go of the bag and and he pointed the gun at the cab driver'."

The cab driver retreated to his vehicle and called police, while Rudkin, of Maldon Road, Southend, grabbed the handbag and ran off.

The heroic cabbie urged a passerby to follow Rudkin who was seen going into a Coral betting shop and remerging without his jacket or the balaclava.

They then, unbeknown to Rudkin, followed him to his nearby home, before giving police the location.

Armed police later raided it and arrested Rudkin after finding the handbag in his garden and the imitation BB gun in his tool box.

His female victim suffered injuries to her knees, where he tackled her to the floor, plus a sprained shoulder and cut to her left arm.

The court heard most of Rudkin's convictions are for theft, but he has one for assault, one from 2012 for possession of a bladed article and the most recent from 2020 when he got a 12-month suspended prison sentence for making threats with a bladed article.

Mr Dobe said the robbery was a "marked escalation" in his offending.

A victim impact statement from the cab driver said he had already been in a heightened emotional state after losing his wife of 43 years in 2024, before being victim to a scam.

The incident has left him fearful of picking up young males in his taxi as he now knew anything could happen and he was mindful how his intervention could have gone wrong had it been a real gun.

Rudkin pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.

The court heard he took to alcoholism and then class A drug use after finding his brother moments after he had taken his own life eight years ago. He then lost his wife, who died suddenly, five years ago, leaving him sole carer of their two children, who now live with grandparents.

Rudkin has a new partner who is pregnant with their first chid.

The court heard he has been clean of drugs in HMP Chelmsford while on remand for four months and is mentoring other prisoners and is now appalled by his actions during the robbery and his impact on Miss Ryan.

Sentencing Rudkin, Her Honour Judge Siew Loke, said: "The victim was a lone female. You

"You were wearing a balaclava with a BB gun, threatened her, shouted 'armed police get on the floor', tackled her and pulled her bag from her.

"[The cab driver] tried to intervene, but you threatened him, but he enlisted another passer by...who saw you enter the betting shop.

"Both men acted quickly and bravely, as no one knew at the time, it was not a live and loaded firearm. It must have been a terrifying experience for the victim, whose body worn footage account said she had never been so scared in her life and she is now scared to go out and she suffered physical bruising by being tackled to the floor."

She sentenced him to five years for robbery and three years, to run concurrently, for the imitation weapon, which be be forfeited and destroyed. There was also a £228 victim surcharge.