A Wilburton man has been charged with robbery and causing death by dangerous driving after Manea One Stop shop was robbed and a passenger in the getaway car died in a crash.
Police were called at about 7.15pm with reports of an armed robbery at Manea Post Office, in Park Road.
At 7.30pm, officers were alerted by ambulance crews to a car in a water-filled ditch in Byall Fen Drove, Manea.
Road policing officers found a man dead in a silver Ford Focus.
Sonny Loveridge, 25, of Stretham Station Road, Wilburton, Ely, has been charged with robbery and causing death by dangerous driving and was due to appear at Cambridge Magistrates’ Court today (24 October).
Bharat Sisodiya, owner of the One Stop shop in Manea, said no one in the shop at the time was hurt.
In a message today to villagers he said he wanted to “thank you everyone for your support”.
A local councillor said the alarm was triggered during the robbery “and the people who attempted the robbery fled empty handed and then crashed on the way out of the village”.
It was revealed yesterday that the body of a man recovered from a car in a water filled ditch two miles away was linked to the robbery.
The body was pulled from the car at Byall Fen Road, Manea, shortly after two men had held up the village One-Stop shop and post office in Park Road, Manea.
Sonny Loveridge was discovered uninjured close by and arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and drink and drug driving.
Anyone who witnessed the crash, or who may have dashcam footage of the moments leading up to it, should contact the road policing unit via webchat or by calling 101, quoting incident 457 of 22 October.
