An armed robber from Plaistow who targeted betting shops across London was jailed for 10 years today.
Yasir Ali, of Maybury Road, pleaded guilty after the start of a trial to committing seven robberies between January 22 and April 4, 2013, including three in successive days.
The Old Bailey heard how Ali, 32, would on most occasions enter with an accomplice, threaten staff with a pistol and demand they hand over money.
He was arrested in November after the Metropolitan Police’s Flying Squad East were able to link him to the incidents and was charged with seven robberies and five firearms offences in January.
Four of the robberies took place in Commercial Street, Whitechapel, two in the Oxford Street area of London and the other in Barking Road.
The man suspected of accompanying Ali on some of the robberies has not yet been traced.
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