A year in crime: Cases that shocked Bracknell in 2023

As the year draws to a close, it is time to take a look back at some of the crimes, trials, sentences and more that shocked the town this year.

The first case came around in April when 77-year-old Robert Frid was jailed for a kidnap and sexual assault he committed in 1986 after his DNA was uploaded to the police database.

Frid, of no fixed abode, kidnapped a three-year-old girl who was playing outside with friends and drove off with her in his VW Camper Van.

Robert Frid (Image: TVP)

He then indecently assaulted her before asking her to leave the vehicle. The girl was left alone and later found by a member of public and taken home.

Frid, who was already serving jail time for offences against children, pleaded guilty to the kidnap and indecent assault of the girl and was jailed for ten years.

A month later, 70-year-old George Hall was jailed for indecent assault against a young girl between September 1, 1998, and September 1, 2001.

The man, from Old Windsor, was jailed for nine years for the assault against the victim, who was five-years-old at the time.

In the same month, over in Woodley, a man was jailed for eight years for stealing £600,000 in cash from Lloyds Bank.

Dressed in a black balaclava and puffer jacket, Shaun Atkins threatened three bank tellers to open a safe in Crockhamwell Road on January 18 this year.

The 40-year-old stole about £370,000, €270,000 and $550 in cash from the safe before running to the car park opposite the bank.

His counsel said Atkins had been in debt and his only other alternative was suicide.

In June, a 48-year-old man was jailed for almost two years after attacking his wife following an argument.

Barry Shrives, of Bracknell, strangled his partner and then his father in Appledore a year prior.

In the same month, over in Wokingham, four men were jailed for their roles in Class A drug trafficking.

Yousef Zayadi, 35, Nabeel Asghar, 24, Adem Alpar, 20, and Rinor Mehmetaj, 27, were charged with conspiring and/or possession of Class A drugs with intent to supply after they set up a ‘cutting house’ in Fishponds Road.

A school run taxi boss who was jailed for six years for avoiding tax was also back in court in June for confiscation proceedings.

David Park, 73, of Jealotts Hill in Warfield, Bracknell, was the director of Berkshire Education Travel Limited and was providing home-to-home taxi services for Wokingham Borough and Bracknell Forest councils.

He was found guilty of invoicing the local authorities some £777,000 in VAT for the taxi services provided, with more than £697,000 being paid by Bracknell Forest and £79,000 by Wokingham Borough.

Park and his company were back in court as HMRC are seeking to recover the stolen money through confiscation.

In July, a 47-year-old rapist was jailed for seven years after attacking a woman in her fifties during his time as a housing officer.

Carl Button worked for a private housing association in Ascot and used his position to gain entry into victim’s homes in July 2019.

The case was described as a huge ‘abuse of trust’.

Wokingham’s Wayne Swaine was also jailed in July after assaulting a doorman outside the Purple Turtle Bar in Reading earlier this year.

The 47-year-old was jailed for over two years after hitting Jonathan Proctor who suffered from a dislocated jaw.

Mr Proctor said: “I think that was a fair sentence, considering the punishment I’ve had. I had to change jobs, I don’t even live in Reading anymore.”

Lastly, Lewis Dearlove was jailed for two years after robbing two teenagers in an underpass on Station Way.

The teens suffered minor injuries and Dearlove, 24, pleaded guilty to one count of robbery.

In July, a mother also made a plea to see her son released from jail after he was jailed almost 20 years ago at the age of 17.

Luke Ings, now 35, was jailed in 2006 after for two robberies and two common assaults after an incident at a McDonalds restaurant in Bracknell.

Luke Ings (Image: Sam Ings)

However, almost 20 years later, Mr Ings still has not been released. He is what is known as an IPP prisoner—imprisoned for public protection – and has been given an indeterminate sentence due to several incidents that have occurred during his imprisonment.

His mother, Sam, is working hard to see him released and rehabilitated in society.

Also in July, a landscaper avoided jail after defrauding customers by selling landscaping services he did not complete or start.

Joe Dallaway, 29, offered landscaping services across Bracknell with his independent business, Legacy Lawn and Landscapes.

However, once customers had paid a deposit to get their gardens done, Dallaway either did not complete the work or did not even start it. He defrauded nine people out of a total of £32,429 across seven households

He received a suspended sentence after it was heard he did not set up the business with the intent to defraud people.

In August, a trio were jailed after sexually assaulting a female for ‘a prank’ in Ladybank, Bracknell.

The victim had her hair and clothes cut, found gel in her nose and noted she was ‘sore downstairs’.

Johnathan Knight, 42, Richard Loxston, 43, and Robert McGeachie, 44, were all jailed for 27 months.

Paedophile Attila Dombi was also jailed in August for 18 years after sex crimes against a young girl.

Attila Dombi (Image: Facebook)

After a week-long trial, Dombi was found guilty of causing a child to watch him masturbate, two counts of assault, one count of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and one count of causing a child to look at pornography.

When interviewed by police about why he had taken the indecent photographs, Dombi said he was ‘curious’.

“It’s something else, something different from normal sex, something unusual,” he said.

The court heard that Dombi had previously received a 22-year prison sentence for attempted murder in 1994 in Spain.

He was driving a stolen car in Barcelona when he was stopped by police. He fired three shots from an automatic handgun, hitting an officer, causing him to spend six months in hospital where he almost died from his injuries.

In November, a teenager was jailed after stabbing a man in the face with a machete for seemingly no reason.

Dre Hayden (Image: TVP)

Dre Hayden, 19, stabbed Anthony Gransden in August and was jailed for three years and nine months.

It has been a busy year for the courts and police, working to ensure criminals across the town were caught and reprimanded.