The son of former world snooker champion Alex ‘Hurricane’ Higgins is facing jail after he admitted carrying out a dawn robbery on a Manchester newsagents.
Jordan Higgins, 31, was arrested after police got a complaint he stole a haul of cigarettes worth a reported £2,000 from a display shelf last January.
It is thought Jordan and a masked accomplice burst into the shop at 6.45am in Cheadle, went round the back of the counter and pushed shopkeeper Steven Gee off his stool.
He then emptied the cigarettes off the shelves into a duvet cover before running off.
Both men were wearing headgear to hide their identities but no weapons were reported.
The victim referred to hearing a screech of tyres outside the shop before it happened and the offenders drove off in a dark coloured car towards Cheadle.
At Minshull Street Crown Court, Higgins – who was given the middle name Alexander from his father – pleaded guilty to robbery.
Dressed smartly in a suit and speaking in a quiet voice, Higgins also confirmed his name and details before being told he will be sentenced later following the preparation of reports.
Higgins, of Heald Green, Cheadle, was given bail pending sentencing on November 13 but Judge Andrew Lowcock told him: “The court is obviously going to be considering an immediate custodial sentence.”
After the case Higgins was later seen outside court smoking with his pals.
Jordan was born a year after his father – who came to be known as ‘The People’s Champion’ – famously won the World Snooker Champion in 1982 during which the star sobbed as he hugged then wife Lynne and one-year-old daughter Lauren.
The Hurricane had already been World Champion and runner-up in 1976 and 1980.
He won the UK Championship in 1983 and the Masters in 1978 and 1981, making him one of nine players to have completed snooker’s Triple Crown.
He was also World Doubles champion with Jimmy White in 1984, and won the World Cup three times with the All Ireland team.
But tragically Higgins snr’s career subsequently crumbled under a litany of fines, bans and court-cases.
He was left penniless after losing his luxury house in Cheshire to the taxman and was eventually stopped from seeing Jordan and Lauren following his divorce with Lynn.
Higgins was a heavy smoker, struggled with drinking and gambling and admitted to using cocaine and marijuana.
Diagnosed with throat cancer in 1998, Higgins died of the illness in his Belfast home on 24 July 2010.
Jordan was a pallbearer at his father’s funeral alongside snooker stars Jimmy White and Ken Doherty.
Jordan’s Facebook page is littered with videos featuring famous moments in his father’s playing career.
Accompanying them are messages with one posted last March when the Hurricane would have been 65.
It read: “Happy birthday dad bit late was yesterday just woke up now after a mad weekend never forgotten xx.”
Story via Cavendish Press.
Image courtesy of Facebook, with thanks
