A CEO’s brave daughter refused to open the safe for armed thugs who dragged her by her hair in a terrifying gunpoint raid.
Emily Aitchison and her mum Kerry were attacked by the robbers posing as cops at their £2.5million home in Sandbanks.
Ashley Fulton and henchman Aaron Evans burst into the luxury property and bound Kerry, 55, by her hands and feet.
When daughter Emily arrived home, the armed robbers dragged her around by her hair and threatened to burn her with an iron.
They also chillingly warned the estate agent they would shoot her in front of Kerry unless she opened the family’s safe.
But brave Emily refused to comply with the thugs’ demands and wrongly entered the code twice.
She then caused the intruders to flee after telling them putting it in incorrectly a third time would trigger an alarm.
Fulton, 42, has now been jailed for life with a minimum of nine years and 192 days for robbery, possession of an imitation firearm and a string of fraud offences.
Accomplice Evans, also 42, was handed a 12-year jail term for robbery and possession of an imitation firearm.
Bournemouth Crown Court heard the horror unfolded on February 21 when the pair broke into the home in Poole.
Both Kerry and Emily were locked in the toilet as the robbers escaped with more than £200,000 of luxury watches, designer handbags, jewellery, cash and their mobile phones.
But the bungling criminals left behind a trail of clues that enabled police to catch them.
Officers discovered their getaway car, which was caught on CCTV, was registered to Fulton’s address.
When they searched the vehicle, police found DNA on vapes left inside was a match for DNA found inside the ransacked property.
Phone records showed Fulton had Googled the exact rare model of Patek Philippe watch they had stolen just two hours after the raid.
He had also made online orders for police ID wallets and lanyards that the pair used to trick their way into the Aitchison house.
Physio and personal trainer Kerry, whose husband Mark is CEO of care home operators the Colten Group, told the court how the robbery had affected her and Emily.
She said: “Home should feel a safe place, a sanctuary, a haven. For me it’s a crime scene where I thought myself and my daughter would be killed.
“I am a mere shadow of my former self because of this violent intrusion.
“Gone is the positive, vibrant outgoing woman and in her place is someone I don’t recognise.”
Emily, meanwhile, was unable to leave the house for six weeks and cried every day for a month following the horror.
Fulton was arrested at a hotel next to Heathrow Airport on May 14, 2023, with his partner Lacey Langton.
Langton was previously jailed for 14 months after fraudulently obtaining a passport for her crook lover under a false name so they could flee to Morocco.
Det Insp Shaun Inkpen said: “This was an extremely distressing incident where the victims were put through a terrifying ordeal within their own home.
“I would like to express my thanks to them both as they have displayed immense courage and bravery throughout our investigation.”
