A man who is a professional drummer who toured with Take That, Texas, and Whitney Houston had been sentenced for four years in jail after holding up a bank with a music-stand as a gun. He was lawfully sentenced with “ham-fisted” robbery.
The court was told that he stole £1,200 from a branch of Lloyds TSB in Folkestone in July by using a gift-wrapped music stand to imitate a gun and pretending he had a bomb strapped to his leg.
He forced the cashier to hand over banknotes, stuffing them into a guitar case, but was arrested after a passer-by saw him putting the notes into his pockets on a nearby beach.
Tate, 46, who spent five years touring with Take That during the height of their fame in the early 1990s, needed the cash to pay off a £400 drugs debt and cover his rent, Maidstone Crown Court was told.
Passing sentence, Judge Andrew Patience said: “The bank employees must have been absolutely terrified. They didn’t know if it was a gun or not and there was the absurd thought that you might let off a bomb attached to your leg. Long after you have served your sentence such people will still be suffering.”
Belinda Summers writes for Musicobsession, a website that offers a wide array of vinyl discs, rare vinyl lps, cds, and dvds.