Chiswick man jailed for assisting gunman in shooting outside Soho nightclub
By The Editor
26th Aug 2021 | Local News
A Chiswick man has been jailed for more than 12 years for assisting a gunman in a shooting outside a West End nightclub.
Robert Dolan,34, of Sutton Court Road, was sentenced at Woolwich Crown Court with two other men after he had earlier pleaded guilty to assisting an offender, conspiracy to supply Class A drugs and possession of criminal property.
The gunman Richard Palmer,39, of Gurnell Grove, Ealing, was jailed for 15-and-a-half years and Bolanle Roberts, of Balfour Road, Ealing, was sentenced to 15 years.
The incident happened at 12.30am on 25 August 2019.
Palmer was the passenger in a silver Jaguar which parked in Rupert Street, Soho. He was then seen going into a nearby nightclub. A fight broke out in the club and a man was stabbed. When the club closed the fight involving the same people continued outside. The court heard Palmer chased the victim and as he got closer and produced a Beretta handgun from his bag. When Palmer caught up with the victim, aged in his 20s, he fired two shots at him, hitting him twice in the back.Palmer then ran back to the Jaguar and the car drove off from the scene shortly before 3:20am.
The victim managed to get to hospital shortly afterwards with gunshot wounds.
He suffered damage to his internal organs. The stab victim from the nightclub was taken to hospital by ambulance and his injury was also assessed as not life-threatening.
Detectives from the Specialist Crime Command attended the scene of the shooting and found two bullet casings.
They also found the silver Jaguar parked outside an address in Ruislip on 26 August 2019. They examined the car and found Palmer's fingerprints on the rear doors.
Enquiries revealed that Palmer met Roberts the day after the shooting to get rid of the Beretta.
After a chase and a struggle, Roberts was arrested on 27 August 2019 in the West Acton area.
He was searched and officers found £48,132.68 in cash as well as 0.6kg of heroin and 14.6kg of crack cocaine, with a combined street value of about £27,000.
Police also found a set of keys to a flat on Coleridge Drive in Ruislip, which was not his home address.
The flat was searched the following day and a cache of firearms and ammunition was found hidden in a rucksack in an airing cupboard, as well as a significant quantity of Class A drugs in the living room - some 2.17kg of heroin with a street value of £95,000.
Among the items recovered was the loaded Beretta used in the shooting on Rupert Street.
The court heard that Roberts was a 'quartermaster' for individuals who needed access to firearms and ammunition.
On 26 August 2019, detectives established there was mobile phone contact between Palmer and Roberts and cell site and ANPR evidence that suggested Roberts went to Palmer's address in Ruislip and drove them both to the flat on Coleridge Drive where Roberts kept his cache of guns and ammunition before taking Palmer home.
When he found out about Roberts' arrest, Palmer went into hiding and evaded being arrested with the assistance of Dolan.
On 28 and 29 August 2019, there was repeated mobile phone contact between Palmer and Dolan who also made a number of calls to hotels in the area.
On 28 August 2019, Dolan and Palmer had a conversation when they discussed the shooting, Roberts' arrest, that the police arrested the wrong person, the firearm and that Palmer feared he had been caught on CCTV and his fingerprints were on the Jaguar.
The conversation resulted in Dolan agreeing to help Palmer to 'lie low' in a hotel in Hanwell.
In the early hours of 29 August 2019, the pair went to a takeaway together in the Hounslow area before travelling to the hotel in Hanwell.
Dolan entered the hotel, booked a room and provided his mobile number to staff.
He left the hotel and went home before Palmer entered and walked towards the rooms.
Palmer stayed at the hotel and was arrested there in the early hours of 30 August 2019.
Dolan was also arrested on the same day and officers seized a shoebox containing £6,840 and a mobile phone, which had the same phone number provided to hotel staff the day before.
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