Desperate drug addict pulled out 12" knife to rob Leeds convenience store
He fled after worker hit the panic button
A drug addict who tried to rob a shop fled empty handed after the quick-thinking staff member raised the alarm.
Andrew Stevens was jailed at Leeds Crown Court for the botched attempt at the Go Local shop in Bramley.
He entered the Henconner Lane shop shortly before 11.15am on August 28 last year.
The 40-year-old approached the counter, pulled out the 12” knife and said to the shocked worker: “Open the till and give me the money.”
He repeated it twice more, but rather than adhere to his demands, the worker hit the panic button which caused Stevens to run from the shop, putting the knife back in his coat as he went.
Homeless Stevens admitted a charge of attempted robbery. He has nine previous convictions for 18 offences, including possessing a weapon in public from last year.
He appeared in court over a video link from HMP Leeds, where he was being held on remand.
Mitigating, Samreen Akhtar conceded it “must have been terrifying” for the staff and said Stevens accepted the case “in full”.
She said the offence was driven by his crack-cocaine addiction and he wished to apologise. She said Stevens had grown up in care.
Judge Kate Rayfield told him: “It was not the most determined robbery the courts have seen and was fairly short lived, but the worker was not to know that.
“They are very vulnerable in this kind of attack. Any attempted robbery on a convenience store is serious.”
She jailed him for 32 months.