A man who robbed a refrigerated lorry at gunpoint has admitted blackmailing his former employer for £250,000 and assaulting a police officer.

Howard Jones, 59, was said to have called the boss of N&B Foods Limited on May 25, 2020, and demanded five payments of £50,000 – threatening to shoot the man’s son if he did not comply. 

While on court bail for that allegation he went to the Rivermead industrial estate offices of N&B Foods, which provides ingredients for the takeaway trade, on the afternoon of Tuesday, June 16. 

He is said to have stolen a DAF truck from the company’s compound at gunpoint, briefly locking the driver in the back of the truck. 

Police chased the 2017-plate vehicle to Ridge Green, off Shaw Road, where armed officers shot the Jones in the leg after the robber was said to have shot at an officer. An Independent Office for Police Conduct investigation into the shooting is ongoing.

Jones, formerly of Stratton Road but appearing in court via video link from Bristol prison, had earlier this year pleaded guilty to robbery, possession of a BB gun at the time of committing the robbery, false imprisonment and causing actual bodily harm to an unnamed armed officer.

At a case management hearing at Swindon Crown Court on Wednesday afternoon, he changed his pleas to allegations of blackmail on May 25 and assaulting Sgt Ho Tsang in Southmead Hospital, Bristol, on June 19, entering guilty pleas to both charges. 

His advocate, Tony Bignall, asked the judge to adjourn the case for psychiatric reports.

He said: “These are uncharacteristic offences. He told me on the last occasion he would like a psychiatric report. 

“It seems to me, bearing in mind how uncharacteristic of him this sort of offending is a report into his psychiatric history or his state of mind generally might go some way to helping the court with culpability.”

Judge Peter Crabtree remanded Jones in custody to be sentenced on December 4. He said: “I’ll sentence you then, Mr Jones, with a pre-sentence report that will go to length [of the prison sentence] given the offences that you’ve pleaded guilty to.”