CATFORD: Longer sentence if OAP does not repay £412,000

A PENSIONER who fenced stolen cash for her son after he took part in an £8m armed raid on a post office has reappeared in court.

Sheila Edwards, of Broadfield Road, Catford, is already serving five years in jail for stashing away £412,000 of her son's booty.

But she was told at Croydon Crown Court, on March 12, she has one year to repay the cash or face extra time behind bars.

The 68-year-old pleaded guilty to the charge of handling the proceeds of theft at her trial in June last year, after a police swoop on her house uncovered £90,000 cash.

Detectives soon discovered the stash was part of the £8m taken in a robbery on a Hastings post office centre in 1996, planned by her son Colin Edwards, who worked at the counting house.

Edwards, who was sentenced to 15 years for his part in the raid, is so far the only member of the gang to be brought to court.

At the trial, the jury heard how the team of robbers held up terrified postal workers with shotguns while emptying the strongroom of mailbags full of cash.

His mother, who has a heart disease, invested the money in three homes, which she bought and then transferred to her son's name.

Her husband Robert, 72, had similar charges against him dropped because of his ill health.

But the couple will spend their golden wedding year apart this year, as the pensioner completes her prison term.

She was told at her trial: "You have been thoroughly dishonest over a period of years.

"Not only did you know the money had been stolen in a violent armed robbery but you regularly carried huge sums to banks and building societies."

The recorder Mr Martin Joy added: "It is sad to see a person such as yourself in this position."