Armed robbers disguised as police officers tied up a wealthy director’s wife and daughter and held them at gunpoint in a raid on their £2.5m Sandbanks home.
When Kerry Aitchison opened the door of her Poole Harbour home, she was greeted by two violent robbers who ransacked the property, bagging more than £200,000 worth of designer watches, Mulberry and Louis Vuitton handbags, Cartier jewellery and cash.
Career criminals Ashley Fulton, 42, and Aaron Evans, 41, forced their way inside and bound her using cable ties.
Mrs Aitchison, who works as a physio and personal trainer, was home alone when the pair knocked on her door wearing baseball caps and jackets that said ‘Police’ on them and showed her ID.
They said they were doing door to door enquiries about a rape on the seafront two days before.
As she leaned in to look at their ID one put a gloved hand over her mouth and said ‘if you shut up and behave yourself you won’t get hurt’, a court heard.
The Aitchison family is pictured leaving Bournemouth Crown Court, with Mark and Kerry Aitchison pictured on the right, and their children Emily and William on the left
Pictured is an aerial view of Sandbanks, where the home is located
The robbery happened in the exclusive cul-de-sac of Chaddesley Glen, which overlooks the Sandbanks peninsula and Poole Harbour.
Celebrities Harry Redknapp and Graeme Souness have homes nearby as does the TV interior designer Celia Sawyer.
Mrs Aitchison’s husband Mark is the chief executive officer of Colten Care which owns 21 care homes across southern England.
He was not at home at the time of the robbery at 1pm on February 21, 2023.
During the 30 minute robbery their 22-year-old daughter Emily came home on her lunch break from work and was grabbed by one of the men.
He held the gun to her head, dragged her by the hair and even threatened to shoot her if Mrs Aitchison, 55, didn’t give them the code to the family’s safe.
They also held estate agent Emily down and threatened to burn her with an iron.
She entered the wrong code twice and told the robbers a third incorrect entry would trigger the alarm.
At one point brave Mrs Aitchison called Fulton and Evans the ‘scum of the earth’.
The pair gave up on the safe and fled the scene in a Volkswagen Golf.
Emily ran to a neighbour’s house to raise the alarm and then cut her mother free.
Ashley Fulton and his girlfriend Lacey Langton, 23, (pictured above) were arrested by armed police at a Heathrow hotel on May 14
A court heard Fulton and Evans both have criminal records for armed robbery and bungled the Poole raid so much they left their DNA all over the large detached house.
Their getaway car was caught on local CCTV and was registered to an address where Fulton was living. When police found the car they recovered vapes inside with their DNA on.
They Googled the exact rare model of Patek Philippe watch they had stolen two hours after the heist.
Police later found online orders for police ID wallets and lanyards
Mike Mason, prosecuting, told Bournemouth Crown Court that Fulton and Evans deliberately targeted the property.
Mr Mason said Mrs Aitchison was pushed on the floor ‘quite violently’ and her hands and feet were tied.
He said: ‘Both went searching around the house, the two men were bickering. One said ‘we need to get out’.
‘They were threatening to shoot Kerry and she said ‘well that’s how this is going to end then’. She thought about what position she should lie in to increase her chance of survival.
‘They seemed on the cusp of leaving when Emily returned home for lunch.
Career criminals Ashley Fulton, 42, and Aaron Evans, 41, pleaded guilty at Bournemouth Crown Court (pictured above)
‘One said to her ‘we are f***ing robbing you, you’re going to end up dead’ and dragged her through the hall. She saw her mum lying on the ground with her hands behind her back.
‘Her mum was crying and said ‘you need to do as they ask, this is real’.
‘One said ‘if you don’t tell us the key to your safe, we are going to murder your mum’. They put the gun to Emily’s head and said to Kerry ‘this is your last chance, if you don’t tell us we are going to kill your daughter’.
‘Mrs Aitchison told the two men ‘you are the scum of the earth, that’s our future, our investment, you have ruined people’s lives by what you have done today’ – it takes quite a bit of guts to say that.
‘It’s obvious they were targeted.’
Mrs Aitchison told the court: ‘Home should feel a safe place, a sanctuary, a haven.
‘For me it’s a crime scene where I thought myself and my daughter would be killed. I am a mere shadow of my former self because of this violent intrusion.
‘Gone is the positive, vibrant outgoing woman and in her place is someone I don’t recognise.’
She tearfully recalled that the terror etched on her daughter’s face during their ordeal will live with her forever.
Emily struggled to leave the house for six weeks, suffered panic attacks and was unable to use the front door.
None of the Aitchisons’ valuables were recovered.
Evans was arrested at a ferry terminal in Birkenhead on April 18 with a Rolex watch and a fake passport.
Fulton and his girlfriend Lacey Langton, 23, were arrested by armed police at a Heathrow hotel on May 14.
They had several designer watches in their room, not related to the Aitchisons, as well as thousands in cash, four mobile phones and a bag of watches and jewellery.
Fulton admitted two counts of robbery, possession of an imitation firearm, three offences of fraud and three of possessing ID documents with improper intent, one of possession of an article for use in fraud and possession of cocaine.
Evans pleaded guilty to two robberies, possession of an imitation firearm and one count of fraud for a false passport.
Langton admitted perverting the course of justice and possessing an identity document with improper intent.
They are due to be sentenced later this month.