A WOMAN who robbed a Carlisle fuel station shop worker in the dead of night has been jailed for two years.
Lisa Marie Nugent, 28, went into the open-all-hours Morton services site on the city’s Wigton Road during the early hours of November 1 last year.
After two failed financial transactions as Nugent tried to purchase a drink, she reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a small portion of an object the male employee believed was a knife.
Carlisle Crown Court heard Nugent told him: “I won’t hurt you if you just give me the money.”
He handed over £30 from the till. “I genuinely believed she was carrying a knife and I was potentially in danger,” the stunned victim later said. “I believed what she said when she said she wouldn’t hurt me if I gave her the money but I didn’t want to take a risk.”
Nugent walked out of the store with the cash. The worker was seen “shocked” in the aftermath, and he later told police the time had left him suffering from anxiety and depression.
After committing the crime, Nugent sent messages to her mother. One read: “I’ve done something really bad.” In another, she stated: “I was desperate for money and drugs. I didn’t get any last night.”
Nugent, admitted robbery and conceded she led the shop employee to believe she had a knife. She also admitted an earlier burglary at her mother’s address.
Appearing over a video link at the crown court today (FRI), Nugent, of no fixed address, was jailed by Recorder Michael Duck QC, who heard of “remorseful” Nugent’s “unusually difficult past”, and long-term drug use.
Recorder Duck accepted she did not have a knife at the time of the robbery, but said of her victim: “He believed you had a weapon, and you told him that you had. No doubt your intention was to purchase further drugs.”
