A south Essex man flew into a rage after losing £60 on a slot machine and stabbed a betting shop worker in a bungled attempt to steal back his money.
Ty Madden, 35, of Wallis Avenue, Southend, was branded a “dangerous offender” and handed an extended sentence for public protection on Thursday (August 27).
Basildon Crown Court heard he already had 47 previous convictions for offences including aggravated vehicle taking, criminal damage, possessing a bladed article and sending malicious communications.
He has now added attempted robbery and inflicting grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent.
He committed the offences at a Betfred shop in Wickford on December 12 2025, where CCTV showed him repeatedly attending and then leaving on the day of the attack.
“You were treated by the two staff members who were present with nothing but friendly, inconsequential conversation,” said Judge Samantha Cohen, after watching the footage.
“It is difficult to understand why you did what you did next, other than to think that it was either an attempt to get more money to recover your losses, or to punish the staff for your losing on their machines.”
When a female employee left the shop floor to make a phone call, leaving only Madden and a male employee present, he picked up one of the little pens customers can use to make bets.
“I observe at this point that playing slot machines does not require a pen and so I am satisfied that you picked it up in order to use it as a weapon,” said the judge.
Madden lunged at the male employee and stabbed him in the side of the abdomen with the pen, telling him: “Give me the money!”
The worker staggered backwards and into a chair. Madden fled empty-handed.
The victim required a tetanus injection, a litre of intravenous fluid and stitches. He missed 19 days of work, 14 of which he was not paid for, and was left fearful of leaving home unaccompanied.
The following morning, Madden dialled 999, telling Essex Police he suffered with schizophrenia and might have stabbed someone the previous day but couldn’t remember.
Whilst he did suffer from bipolar and schizoaffective disorders, Judge Cohen said after listening to the call that Madden had sounded calm and clear.
“It seems to me that that call to the 999 service the following day was not, as I am invited to find, some sort of attempt by a confused young man to work out what he had actually done,” she said.
“Rather, it was an attempt, which I regard as quite cynical, to blame what you had done on your mental disorder.”
After being advised by the 999 operator to hand himself in, Madden did not do so.
He was ultimately arrested in the community, gave them a fake name and answered “no comment” to all questions.
Once charged and remanded into custody, he claimed to the probation service and a psychiatrist that he had loaned the victim £7,000 months earlier, which was never repaid.
But defence barrister Nick Bonehill told the court on Thursday his client now accepted that was not true.
Madden had also falsely claimed the victim was goading him over his losses that day and had punched him first.
Mr Bonehill said Madden, who had a troubled childhood and was placed in foster care as a teenager, had struggled for years with alcohol and drug dependency and was under the influence on the day of the stabbing.
The father-of-three had also been off his antipsychotic medication for ten months and became worked up after hearing a rumour that the machine was rigged so it was impossible to win, Mr Bonehill claimed.
But, he added, his client had now detoxed in prison and was doing much better,
Nonetheless, the probation service assessed Madden as posing a high risk to the general public in future.
Judge Cohen sentenced him to four years and nine months in prison, plus two years on extended licence.
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