Thomas Brand, a man with 163 previous convictions including manslaughter and conspiracy to murder, is back behind bars after being jailed for four years and four months at Newcastle Crown Court for a terrifying burglary in Sunderland.
Violent criminal history
In 2003, Brand, formerly of Newcastle but latterly of Hampden Road, Sunderland, was jailed for 12 years for conspiracy to murder. After his release, he started taking cocaine after finding it hard to get a job, and it wasn't long before he was back in trouble with the police.
In 2017, a masked Brand raided a Coral bookies in Sunderland and threatened two women with a hammer as he demanded cash. Both victims were said to have been frozen with fear and too scared to press the panic alarm after Brand warned them not to touch anything. He fled on a bike but was caught when police followed his getaway route on CCTV and found his ski mask with his DNA. He had made off with £600 and also admitted targeting fruit machines during raids on pubs, for which he was jailed for four years.
Pub raids and manslaughter
Months before the bookies raid, he admitted a burglary at the Lambton Worm pub in Sunderland. He and an accomplice were caught fleeing the pub in the early hours after smashing their way in. A court heard a window was smashed and Brand dropped a bag containing £151 in pound coins taken from a fruit machine as he ran off. He was on bail for that break-in when he committed the bookies raid. Brand had also carried out a second pub burglary at the Hastings Hill pub in Sunderland, where he and an accomplice caused £800 of damage and made off with a fruit machine.
In 2019, after being released from prison, Brand went for a drink with his friend Anthony Richardson in Elswick. Mr Richardson had been living at the Ozanam House hostel on Dunholme Road, Elswick, where he befriended Brand. Following a row while out, Brand swung his fist and sent the 46-year-old crashing to the floor, banging his head and suffering fatal injuries. Brand was unanimously found guilty of manslaughter by a jury at Newcastle Crown Court. He showed no emotion as he was locked up for six years by Mr Justice Morris.
Latest robbery and sentencing
On the night of April 7 this year, Brand went to The William Jameson pub in Sunderland with a balaclava over the bottom half of his face. He went to the till and told a female member of staff to open it. She told him she didn't have access and would have to get her manager. The woman got the manager's attention without making Brand aware he was counting the money, and the manager refused to open the till. He told the woman to call the police and Brand said: "I don't give a f*** about the police".
Brand then said to the man: "I will f****** kill you". He picked up a Stella glass and smashed it off the bar counter and said he would kill them. Brand forcibly pulled the till from where it was and walked out with it, still unaware it was empty. As a result of a 999 call made by the woman, police quickly found him but he ran off. He was then found hiding face down in a bush, although the till was never found.
He pleaded guilty to robbery and, for that and being in breach of a suspended sentence for the burglary last year, he was jailed for four years and four months. Chris Knox, defending him at the recent sentence hearing, said Brand "has been shot a couple of times" and said the robbery was a "most inept effort", with "customers in the bar seeming to have taken it with considerable calm". He added: "He's got a dreadful record but, by and large, not for this."
