A SERIAL robber who targeted newsagents and off-licences in north Kent and London has been jailed for eight years.

Amandeep Mahil, 30, was sentenced at Maidstone Crown Court on Wednesday, November 12, for a string of crimes, which included robberies at an off-licence in Gravesend and at a newsagent in Maidstone.

Mahil, of Beverley Road in Greenwich, London, appeared in court for sentencing after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to five counts of robbery and two of burglary.

On July 27 Mahil committed a robbery at The Local, an off-licence and store in Echo Square, Gravesend. Then, just over two weeks later, on August 11, he robbed Lucky's Newsagent on Boughton Parade, Maidstone.

Imposing a sentence of eight years, Judge Martin Joy QC told Mahil: “You have an appalling record of violence and anti-social behaviour.”

The sentence has been welcomed by Detective Inspector Ian Dampier, who handled the investigation alongside North Kent’s major enquiry team.

He said: “It is thanks to the hard work and dedication of these officers that this dangerous man was taken off the streets at the earliest opportunity and prosecuted for these crimes.

“The weight of evidence against Mahil left him with no option but to plead guilty which meant the victims of his crimes did not have to relive their ordeals in the court room."