Robber Who Couldn’t See Straight Is Jailed

LONDON — A plan by a gang of robbers to rob a local mortgage loan society was too short-sighted to succeed. They picked a lookout who couldn’t see a thing without his glasses.

The man acting as a lookout outside an east London Building Society branch decided to leave his glasses at home because the frames were too distinctive.

But without the glasses, Brian Scarborough was too myopic to spot police officers who arrived during the robbery.

The judge trying the case at the Old Bailey criminal court on Monday was not amused.

He jailed Scarborough for almost four years and told him: “I am bound to say that the planning in this case was distinctly amateurish . . . . We have got enough professional bank robbers without amateurs joining in,” he said.