A Spar shop robber met with “formidable” resistance from a brave manager who physically tried to stop him stealing bags of cash after catching him red-handed has been jailed for four years.
Carlisle Crown Court heard today how the female boss returned to the Sandylands Road premises in Kendal on May 19 after giving directions to a member of the public outside.
She returned to an upstairs office, saw 41-year-old James Karl Dean holding three heavy bags of money and asked what he was doing. “To which he replied, ‘I’ve got a knife in my pocket and I will hurt you’,” said prosecutor Tim Evans, who stated that the manager had remarked on his “calmness”.
Bravely she pushed Dean backwards and there was a prolonged struggle as she tried to wrestle back the bags, causing both them and the fabric of his top to split. He told her: “You’ve ripped my shirt.”
There was “to-ing and fro-ing”, Dean pushing the woman against a wall, causing her to bang her head, and one stage she thought she might fall down the stairs after being shoved. “The defendant, at that stage, really, decided enough was enough at least with the formidable resistance he was meeting, and he fled,” said Mr Evans.
But that was not the end of it, as the manager pursued him though the shop. “She was running as fast as she could due to a hip replacement. She couldn’t run very far,” added the prosecutor.
The manager had been able to call police on her mobile. But as Dean ran down the road — having stolen £1,075.34, including staff wages — he stated: “I’m coming back for you, you grass.”
Dean admitted robbery on the basis he hadn’t had a knife at the time. The court heard he had 126 offences on his criminal record and was on bail at the time of the Kendal crime.
Megan Tollitt, defending, said Dean, of Park Road, Birkenhead, had been grieving after his mother’s death, and “struggling to cope with being in the community” having spent much of his adult life in custody.” He was in the area with his partner and baby on a Lakes camping trip, and made an “impulsive and opportunistic” decision to steal.
Passing sentence, Judge Ian Unsworth QC said of the shop manager: “It must have been an utterly terrifying incident for her. I would like to commend her publicly for her quite extraordinarily courageous behaviour on that date. She behaved in a way that few would, and she ought to be commended for that.”
The woman will be put forward for Cumbria High Sheriff’s award in due course.
