The Facebook date from hell: Mother, 23, arrested after being tricked into driving getaway car for thief who asked her out online

( ၿမန္မာ ဘာသာၿပန္ရွင္းၿပခ်က္ အသံဖုိင္ ေအာက္ဖက္ )

A mother-of-two had a 'first date from hell' after she was duped into becoming the getaway driver for a thief she met on Facebook.

Leah Gibbs, 23, had planned to spend an evening watching a DVD and getting to know 21-year-old Adam Minton.  

But instead, when she arrived at his home, he asked her to give him a lift - claiming he briefly had to visit a friend.


She drove him to a shopping area, where he left her for five minutes. When he returned in a panic he ordered her to: "Go, go, go!" 


She drove back to his house, but as his personality had changed and he had become rude towards her, she decided the date was over.  

Just as he was trying to coax her into the house, the police arrived and they were both arrested. 

Miss Gibbs was astonished to find police accusing him of robbing a betting shop at knife point, and her of being his accomplice.

She was forced to spend a night in a cell before police accepted her story and she was freed. Minton has now been jailed for four and a half years. 

Mugshot: Minton has now been jailed for four and a half years for robbery

Miss Gibbs, from Tylorstown, South Wales, said: 'I thought I would be ending the night in Adam's arms. Instead, he had landed in the long arms of the law and I was facing jail.

'I'm not a bad person. I was duped. It could have happened to anyone.'

She was only freed when Minton convinced police she had not been involved and knew nothing about the robbery.  

She added: 'I'm grateful he told the police I knew nothing of the robbery, but still bitter he involved me.'

Minton had worn a black bandana and threatened a cashier with a large kitchen knife. He got away with £250.

But the cashier was able to give police the car's registration number which led to the prompt arrests.  

Merthyr Crown Court heard last month that Minton first told police he carried out the robbery because of a drug debt. He later claimed he had a gambling problem. The court also heard he had a record for violent offending.

The incident is the latest ‘date from hell’ to emerge and follows Twitter users taking to the social media site to speak of their own experiences.