'Highwayman' armed with a cigarette lighter is cleared of attempted robbery

Nov 07, 2023

A former soldier whose practical joke backfired spectacularly was cleared of trying to rob an innocent cyclist at gunpoint.

Joshua Chainey, 31, was said by prosecutors to have pointed what appeared to be a Colt Python revolver at Greg Hitchcox, who was on the back of his £1,000 electric bicycle in an attempted armed robbery last May

But the former Rifleman said it was just a prank gone wrong. He had aimed the cigarette lighter, which belonged to his late grandfather and merely looked like a pistol, at what he thought was his friend Toby Hitchcox – not realising that the man on the bike was his pal’s older, similarly bearded relative.

The jury sided with the defendant, taking just a few hours to acquit him of attempted robbery, possession of an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence and possession of an imitation firearm in a public place.

READ MORE: Trial of 'highwayman' opens at Oxford Crown Court

During the short, two-day trial, the court heard there was little dispute that Chainey had pointed the fake firearm at a man on the B4044 in Chalgrove and said words to the effect of ‘give me your bike’.

Rather than hand over his two-wheeler, complainant Greg Hitchcox swerved around the alleged highway robber and called 999.

Armed police swooped on Chainey a short time later as he walked from Chalgrove, where he had been having a few cans of Carlsberg with his friend, to where he was sleeping rough in a Watlington park.

Closing his client's case to the jury, defence brief Jonathan Coode pondered why the complainant had cycled away if he believed the gun being pointed at him was real.

“If you think that somebody is pointing a gun at you, I suggest, and we’re not meant to personalise these things [but] we’ve all had difficult experiences in our lives, I would suggest the last thing you would do is cycle away from that person with your back to them. That’s what Mr Hitchcox did," he said.

Mr Chainey leaves Oxford Crown Court on Thursday, August 24 (Image: Oxford Mail)

“If somebody was pointing a gun at you and you thought it was the real thing – ‘let’s have your bike, give us your bike’ – what would you do?

“I don’t know about you, members of the jury. I’d say ‘take it, please don’t shoot me’.

“You wouldn’t just ride away with your back to this highwayman.”

He went on to suggest that, had Mr Hitchcox thought his client was armed with a real revolver, he would not have got back in his car after returning home and gone looking for the alleged armed robber.

“Real guns can shoot through windscreens as well as shoot somebody standing in front of them, can’t they,” Mr Coode said.

Chainey, formerly of no fixed address, was cleared of attempted robbery, possession of an imitation firearm with intent and possession of an imitation firearm.