Wig-wearing crook jailed over cash machine machete threats

A machete-wielding robber who used a wig to disguise himself as a woman has been jailed for seven years.

West Midlands Police said Christopher Taylor was linked to a cash machine robbery after the wig was found among an assortment of women’s clothing inside his car.

Officers said the 25-year-old was “dressed as a brunette” as he threatened a man with a weapon in the early hours of November 8 last year.

The victim was forced to hand over his bank card, £50 and PIN details after being approached in Brickhouse Lane, Tipton.

Taylor then withdrew a further £200 before fleeing in a Peugeot 206 which was discovered by officers in nearby Wednesbury around an hour later.

Further inquiries then connected him to another knifepoint robbery in which a woman had her handbag stolen while with her 11-year-old son in Lichfield Street, Walsall, on December 8 last year.

Taylor, of Tadmore Close, Bilston, was convicted following a trial and was jailed for a total of seven years at Wolverhampton Crown Court last Wednesday.

Commenting on the inquiry, Detective Constable Jason Fowler said: “Taylor may have tried to disguise himself as a woman but there was nothing lady-like about his actions.

“He may have thought putting on a wig would hide his identity but it proved his downfall as we were able to forensically link him to the robbery through this.

“He thought nothing against threatening others and taking what wasn’t his own. Now he and his alter ego face a lengthy period behind bars.”