A serial armed robber dubbed the “Skull Cracker” has been caught after going on the run for the third time.
Career criminal Michael Wheatley, 55, went missing when he was released on a temporary licence from an open prison in Kent on Saturday, and allegedly robbed a building society in Surrey yesterday. He and another man, aged 53, were arrested in Tower Hamlets, east London, on suspicion of the armed raid.
Wheatley, who got his nickname after viciously pistol-whipping victims including a 73-year-old woman, had gone on the run twice in the past and each time staged a series of violent robberies before being caught and re-jailed.
Kent Police said in a statement: “At 2pm on May 7, two men, aged 55 and 53, were arrested in the Tower Hamlets area and are now in police custody.
“The 55-year-old man was also arrested on suspicion of being unlawfully at large.”
A branch of the Chelsea Building Society in Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey, was robbed yesterday, and Surrey and Kent police were investigating whether Wheatley was responsible.
Jodie Aston, 30, who works in a hair and beauty salon which is just yards from the building society, said: “We heard nothing until someone came in and told us.
“It’s quite scary to think we were so close.
“It could have been in here.”
Wheatley was first jailed for nine years in the 1980s for a post office raid, but fled in 1988 when he was given permission to go to hospital and failed to return.
He went on to commit a series of nine armed robberies, and was jailed again in 1989.
Three years later, authorities released him to go to the optician and again he went on the run, committing eight robberies.
He was jailed for seven years in 1993.
The career criminal was released on parole in 2001, and within weeks was staging a series of raids on banks.
Prosecutors said he returned to a life of crime after a relationship with a woman he met while in custody turned sour, and she spent his money and ran up debt.
At the Old Bailey hearing, lawyers revealed that, when asked his occupation by a custody officer, he replied: “Armed robber.”
He was given 13 life sentences in 2002, and was ordered to serve a minimum of eight years before being considered for release.