Masked raider sent to prison over failed Inverness shop robbery
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Jason Stewart walked out of the store when a staff member stood up to him and told him to get out Inverness Sheriff Court has heard.
Inverness Sheriff Court heard that Marjory Williamson’s shift at Dalneigh Stores was about to finish when Stewart walked in at 5pm on August 18.
Depute fiscal Michelle Molley: “At that time she observed a male enter the shop wearing dark sunglasses, a baseball cap and a dark coloured scarf covering his nose, cheeks and mouth. Marjory Williamson thought he ‘was up to no good’,” said the fiscal and kept an eye on him.
Stewart approached her, produced a plastic bag with his left hand, and told her to hand over the money. But Ms Williamson replied: ‘get out the shop’.
“She pushed the plastic bag out of her way and struggled to bend down to activate the store alarm. A number of police units were dispatched to the store.”
Stewart simply walked out of the store.
The fiscal said a neighbour observed Stewart sitting in a car outside the shop just before 5pm and 15 minutes later the same neighbour saw him return to the car with his face covered with a scar, his jacket hood and sunglasses before he drove off.
Stewart was later identified by store owners on CCTV footage which showed he entered with a knife in his right hand. Ms Williamson did not notice Stewart had something in his right hand. The fiscal said: “She said later it all happened very quickly and thought he knew she was pressing the panic alarm and that he did not threaten her. ”
Stewart (26), a prisoner at Inverness HMP, admitted the offence.
Defence solicitor Neil Wilson told Sheriff Margaret Neilson that once Stewart was told to leave he did, adding there was nothing of violence on his previous record and he was on a drug treatment testing order. The solicitor said his client was released from a prison term in April but made the mistake of moving back to Inverness two-and-a-half months later, where the only people he knew were drug users.
