Hammer-wielding robber jailed over Haverigg Post Office attack

A robber who stormed a Post Office and threatened a lone worker with a hammer before escaping with £380 has been jailed.

Paul Czernozekow, 42, brandished the weapon and smashed the counter screen up to 20 times at the store in Haverigg, Cumbria, on 26 May.

Carlisle Crown Court heard the sub-postmaster was "absolutely terrified" and fled to a storage area for refuge.

Czernozekow admitted robbery and was jailed for three years and one month.

He had demanded money from the sub-postmaster and then smashed the counter screen multiple times.

The sub-postmaster ducked away from the screen, activated an alarm and fled to a private storage area of the Post Office and held the door shut.

Czernozekow, of King Street, Millom, was seen on CCTV jumping over the counter and escaping with 380 one-pound coins.

Prosecuting, Tim Evans said the sub-postmaster described the raid as "absolutely terrifying" and had caused "a scene of considerable destruction".

The court heard how Czernozekow went on to burgle a Tesco store in Millom on 12 June before he was eventually arrested in the East Midlands.

He admitted robbery, possession of an offensive weapon and burglary.

Czernozekow also pleaded guilty to five burglaries and five thefts at an Asda store in Derbyshire between 25 July and 18 August.

The court heard how, after a spate of crime and drug abuse more than a decade ago, Czernozekow had moved to Cumbria and turned his life around.

However, he began taking opiate painkillers following a gym accident and relapsed into heroin use and offending.

"I've now ruined my own life and lost my family," Czernozekow wrote in a letter to sentencing Judge Nicholas Barker who called the note "heartfelt and thoughtful".

Judge Barker said the sub-postmaster had shown "remarkable composition of mind and courage" in a "vivid and terrifying ordeal".

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