Shop owner threatened with blade by teenager
A TERRIFIED shopkeeper was held up at knifepoint by a young man and a schoolboy accomplice, a court heard.
Sean Ansbro and the 15-year-old boy burst into Pennington’s newsagents in Leigh armed with the weapon and demanded cigarettes and cash.
The raiders were wearing hats and sunglasses and the boy, who was brandishing the kitchen knife, told the shopkeeper, Mohammed Bedar, that they did not want to hurt him.
But Ansbro said he would unless he handed over the wanted items, said Anthony O’Donohoe, prosecuting.
Ansbro, 24, held out a plastic bag which he filled with £200 worth of cigarettes from behind the counter and also grabbed £100 in coins.
They fled and shortly afterwards tried to burn some of their clothing. The police were quickly at the scene searching for them and they found the carrier bag discarded in a garden.
The boy, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was found in a garden by the householder in Hope Carr Terrace and he asked the man not to tell the police he was there.
The police were, however, notified and the boy was arrested. Meanwhile the police helicopter had been deployed and Ansbro was spotted hiding in mud by a sewage works and apprehended. When arrested he said he had not had the knife and asked if they had caught “the lad.”
Both Ansbro, of Deepdale, Leigh, and the boy, pleaded guilty at Liverpool Crown Court to the December 30 robbery.
Jailing Ansbro for three years Judge Nigel Gilmour, QC said that the shop they had targeted was vulnerable and provided a valuable service to the community.
“You involved in this criminal enterprise a 15-year-old boy. He may not have required much persuading and he may have been affected by drugs at the time but the fact is it was your decision to rob the shop.
“It was your decision that a knife would be taken though I bear in mind it was not you had the knife. It was brandished, it must have terrified the shopkeeper,” he said.
He said that Ansbro had wanted money to pay off a £300 debt but pointed out he was working at the time earning £100 a week.
Judge Gilmour imposed a youth rehabilitation order with three years supervision on the juvenile and a curfew.
“Don’t let your mother down. I don’t want to see you again,” he told the boy, warning him that if he breaches the orders he will be put behind bars.
Phil Martin, defending, said that Ansbro had wanted money to pay off a £300 gambling debt but he had not thought the robbery through.
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Friday 24 May 2013
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