A young Kendal man who tried to rob a terrified Kendal town centre Chinese takeaway worker at knifepoint just weeks after snatching a teenager’s handbag outside a nearby Tesco has been jailed for three-and-a-half years.
Josh Roelants, 21, grabbed the lone 17-year-old female’s bag as she prepared to enter a Tesco Express store on Highgate between 9pm and 10pm on August 26.
She felt a forceful pull on her left arm and saw two males running away, one holding a handbag which contained a purse, bank cards and cash.
Police were called and the following day an officer found Roelants and 18-year-old Elliott Bryan. Roelants later admitted robbery and Bryan admitted handling stolen goods after being found in possession of the woman’s bank card.
In an impact statement, the woman said she no longer felt safe when alone or carrying a bag for fear of being targeted again. She spoke of feeling increasingly anxious since the incident.
Two months later while on police bail, on October 23, Roelants entered the New Fortune takeaway in Kendal’s Highgate. His face was covered and he produced a ferocious knife before demanding till money from a young mother working at the counter of the family business.
Roelants fled empty-handed after being scared away by the woman’s husband and another man, who both emerged from the kitchen brandishing meat cleavers.
In an impact statement, the traumatised woman described her fondness for the town, but stated: “I never imagined something so violent could happen in a place like a Kendal.
A child was present in the home attached to the business, and her husband had said of the impact on his family: “It never occurred to me that we would be subjected to a violent attack.”
Roelants, of Park Avenue, Windermere, admitted attempted robbery and illegal possession of a bladed article in relation to that incident.
He was jailed by Recorder Julian Shaw, who heard of a difficult upbringing, cocaine use from the age of 14 and a defendant who had “clearly lost his way”.
Bryan, of Lound Road, Kendal, had no previous convictions to his name, and was given a 12-month community order comprising rehabilitation work and 100 hours’ community service.
Sentencing Roelants, Recorder Shaw said of painful impact statements provided by the husband and wife from the takeaway: “They are contemplating having to go back to China. If they can’t feel safe in Kendal, as they put it, where can they feel safe?”
