Ex-golf champ Andrew Dodman jailed for Wrexham robberies
Ex-Welsh golf champion Andrew Dodman has been jailed for nine years for two knifepoint robberies in Wrexham.
Dodman, 51, admitting taking £12,000 from a house where he knew the occupant had a safe and £600 in cash from a betting shop, Mold Crown Court heard.
In the home raid the victim jumped out of a bedroom window to get help.
Dodman's lawyer said he was a man of "contradictions" who had been a golf professional for eight years and Welsh PGA champion in 1987.
Henry Hills, defending, described Dodman, as "an intelligent, gifted and cultured man" who was obsessed with gambling which motivated his actions.
He had previous convictions for 23 fraud offences and 26 thefts, the court was told.
Dodman, of no fixed abode, was arrested in a hotel in Warrington days after threatening a lone pregnant member of staff at Corbett's Bookmakers.
He also threatened to cut the ear off the home owner in the second raid.
When he was arrested, police found knives, gloves and a face mask in Dodman's car along with more than £4,000 in cash.
Judge Rhys Rowlands said the robberies were "a serious escalation" in his offending.