Knife-wielding drug addict carried out drive-thru robbery at Wakefield McDonald’s after KFC hold ups

William Molloy has been handed an extended nine-year jail sentence after threatening terrified staff at the fast-food restaurants on Wakefield’s Westgate Retail Park and Dewsbury Road before fleeing with fistfuls of cash.

He hit the same KFC twice in less than two weeks, and then McDonald’s. He has previous convictions including indecent exposure and robbery.

Judge Andrew Stubbs KC told him at Leeds Crown Court: “It was a spree of offending in which you armed yourself with a knife. You are significant risk of causing serious harm – that means I think you are dangerous.”

Prosecutor Michael Morley said 32-year-old Molloy first walked into the KFC on the retail park as staff were about to close, at around 10.30pm on January 19. He approached the counter and ordered food for £1.99. But as the assistant turned to put his food in front of him, he pulled a serrated 20cm knife from his waist band and demanded cash.

Another staff member ran to the toilet and called the police. Molloy then jumped on the counter and held up the knife before grabbing around £400 from the till and fleeing.

He returned to to the shop 11 days later, and this time put a knife to a worker’s throat while wearing a hood and a mask. He got away with around £10 in loose change.

But just a matter of hours later, at around 1.45am, he went to the drive-thru hatch at the Dewsbury Road McDonald’s on foot, opening up the window himself from the outside.

A staff member said they saw Molloy reach in holding a knife and he said: “If you do not give me money I will jump in.” He then grabbed a till tray containing around £115 and ran.

Later arrested, he confessed to police he carried out the robberies to buy drugs. He had previously been given a suspended sentence for robbing a Costa in Doncaster, telling staff he had a weapon on him.

For his latest offending, he admitted three counts of robbery, three of possessing an offensive weapon, breach of the suspended sentence and three counts of breaching the terms relating to being put on the sex offenders register for exposure.

Mitigating, Andrew Walker said: “It really revolves around his drug taking, the more he takes the worse he gets and the more desperate he becomes.”

Mr Walker said Molloy, who was living on Westgate in Wakefield, had suffered from severe mental health issues and the police had been called during an episode in which he threatened to throw himself from a bridge in the city.

Mr Walker added: “He says he was desperate to be sectioned, and then the robberies occurred. He describes them as being like a cry for help but it hardly fits the bill of knife-point robberies.

“He felt he was backed into a corner and did not know where else to turn. In the cold light of day he realises how awful they were.”

His sentence is made up of five years’ custody, and four years on extended licence.