A shop worker has spoken of the terrifying moment a robber armed with a broken bottle demanded money from her colleague.
Jackie Bligh was working at the Beechwood Convenience Store, off Pemberton Crescent in Beechwood, Middlesbrough, when Dominic Stewart burst in at about 8pm on December 20.
Jackie, 44, was at the back of the shop, but saw the drama unfold on a CCTV screen as fellow worker Michael Smith, 27, calmly handed over about £120 in cash - a reaction praised by store boss Bay Bashir.
She said: “In the aftermath, I was traumatised. I was behind the counter only two minutes beforehand.
“I don’t know what I would have done if he asked me for the money. I might have said no, I couldn’t say, and then what would he have done?
“He was threatening Michael with a broken bottle, he could have done anything.”
Stewart, 34, of Essex Street, Ayresome, Middlesbrough was jailed for four years at Teesside Crown Court yesterday.
With a scarf wrapped around his face, he told the shop worker: “You’re getting robbed. Give me all your money.”
Mr Bashir, 42, who owns the Beechwood shop and others at Saltersgill and at Belle Vue shops, said that Stewart was known to staff and had been barred for shoplifting.
He said: “Michael was calm and that is exactly the right thing to do. But I knew afterwards that he was effected by what had happened, he must have just gone into shock.
“I would rather lose money than see someone get hurt, and Stewart was very threatening.
“We do a lot of staff training, he did the right thing, handed over the money and pressed the panic button. The police’s response was superb.
“But when you think what could have happened, all for £120 - well it’s frightening.”
Mr Bashir said that in 15 years of owning his shops, there have only been two robberies - the other taking place at the Saltersgill shop in October.
He continued: “I just hope nothing else happens. I’m glad to see him go to prison.”
Stewart pleaded guilty at court to robbery, and assault with intent to resist arrest in an incident at Morrisons in Berwick Hills.
He also admitted eight thefts - a string of shoplifting offences from November and December.
A supermarket security guard is still anxiously awaiting blood test results after he suffered a needle injury wrestling with shoplifter Stewart.
“I have never encountered the level of violence I was confronted with that day in 20 years as a security officer,” the victim later said.
He thought he had been punched to his right arm, but afterwards he felt a dull ache and found a blood spot and a needle-type puncture wound.
He pursued Stewart, 34, who was leaving Morrisons in Berwick Hills, Middlesbrough without paying for a basket full of shopping at about 8pm on December 10 last year.
The thief resisted and his top came off as the two men wrestled on the floor of the Ormesby Road shop.
No comments:
Post a Comment