Man on trial accused of robbing a Stockton restaurant of two bottles of beer at knifepoint

A thirsty thief has gone on trial accused of robbing a restaurant of two bottles of Newcastle Brown Ale at knifepoint.

Daniel Bryce, 29, admits stealing the beer bottles but denies robbery and having a kitchen knife at the Stockton restaurant.

Prosecutor Joseph Spencer said Bryce walked into the Taj Mahal on Yarm Lane, central Stockton with his hood up and used a kitchen knife to scare the lone worker.

The worker, whose family has owned the restaurant for more than 25 years, said: “I thought he was a customer at first.

“He just came up to me with a knife and said: ‘Don’t move.’

“I was frightened for my life,” he told a Teesside Crown Court jury from the witness box today.

“I put my hands up. I wanted him to take whatever he wanted and leave.”

He said the hooded man pointed the knife, “like a vegetable knife” with a blade about seven inches long, at him at about 8.10pm on November 29 last year.

The witness added: “He just went to the fridge and took two bottles of Newcastle Brown Ale. He ran out of the door.

“I followed him to see where he was going. I said: ‘I know who you are. I recognise you. I’m going to call the police.’

“He looked once behind and he just kept running.”

He saw the alleged robber cross Hartington Road and run into an alleyway.

He went back to the restaurant and called the police, telling the operator: “A guy came in with a knife. He threatened me. He nicked some bottles of lager.”

Bryson was seen walking back to the hostel where he was living. Police later found the two cold bottles of beer on his bed.

He initially claimed he had not been out of his room all night, but accepted he had stolen the beer after he was arrested on suspicion of robbery.

Bryson, of Hartington Road, denied using a knife or that he under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time.

Mark Styles, defending, asked the shop worker whether there was any possibility of a mistake and whether he was adamant there was a knife.

The witness replied: “No mistake at all... Definitely there was a knife.

“I don’t know where it came from.”

Mr Styles said Bryson simply “chanced his luck”, went in and stole the beer when there was no one around.

Then he suggested the restaurant worker came down some stairs and saw Bryson as he was on his way out.

The worker responded: “There’s no stairs. It’s a single-storey building.”

On further questioning about stairs, he answered: “He can say whatever he likes. There’s no stairs.

“Nobody lives on the premises. It’s a single-storey building. There’s no stairs at all. Everything’s downstairs. There’s no upstairs.

“There’s no stairs.”

He added: “He can say whatever he likes, but the truth is the truth. You can come with me now to the restaurant and have a look at where everything is. You’ll find no stairs.”

Proceeding