IPSWICH: A robber who held up a security guard at gunpoint outside a Nacton Road bank as police looked on is today waiting to be sentenced.

Colin Adwent

IPSWICH: A robber who held up a security guard at gunpoint outside a Nacton Road bank as police looked on is today waiting to be sentenced.

Ian Joseph made off with �15,000 - but had to discard his haul as Metropolitan Police surveillance officers gave chase. The pursuit led to an armed siege in east Ipswich, but Joseph eluded capture.

However, the long arm of the law finally caught up with him after he was found guilty of one of the three armed robberies which took place at the Lloyds TSB branch within 18 months.

The 37-year-old was convicted at Kingston Crown Court of the third raid on September 7, 2007.

Joseph, of Northolt, Middlesex, will now be sentenced at the same court on March 5 for conspiracy to commit robbery.

The gun-toting robber was part of a large gang which committed 18 armed raids in a 17-month crime spree. However, Joseph was only convicted of one robbery.

The raids finally ended when two gang members, Mark Nunes, 35, and Andrew Markland, 36, were fatally wounded by Metropolitan Police marksman as they carried out a robbery at Chandlers Ford in Hampshire.

The men, both from south London, were shot as police laid in wait for them six days after Joseph carried out the Nacton Road raid.

Met Police officers had been keeping the Lloyds TSB branch under surveillance in an intelligence-gathering operation when Joseph struck in September 2007.

After thrusting a gun in the face of a security van guard, Joseph fled.

At one stage, police laid siege to a house in nearby Nansen Road and firearms officers gathered outside the property.

However, Joseph is believed to have escaped on foot. The cash box and money he stole were found nearby in a getaway car.

Kingston Crown Court heard the particulars of the offence Joseph was found guilty of were that between April 26, 2006 and September 14, 2007 he conspired together with Mark Nunes, Andrew Markland, and eight other men to rob.

The Nacton Road Lloyds TSB was also targeted on November 18, 2005 and February 10, 2006.

Among the other banks hit by the gang was a Lloyds TSB in Cherry Hinton, near Newmarket, which was targeted twice and another in St Christopher's Road, Colchester.

Other armed raids occurred in London, Bristol, Gloucester, Oxford, Bath, Winchester, Swindon and Reading.

Did you witness the raids or the police siege? Write to Your Letters, The Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or send us an e-mail to eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk