Man jailed for armed robbery

David Montieth (29) of Lisfannon Park in the city pleaded guilty to robbing the store and possessing a knife and a hammer on November 19, 2016 on the second day of his trial.

The court heard that around 2 a.m. a man had been working in the convenience store when he heard a buzzer signifying a customer had just come in.

He saw a man with a balaclava pulled down over his face brandishing a knife and demanding money.

The man behind the counter refused at first and then the robber produced a hammer and threw a plastic bag across for the money.

After getting a sum of money £530, the man ran off but dropped a set of keys as he did so.

The shop assistant went out to the street and some young people handed him the keys.

Police went to Montieth's flat and in a store room found a balaclava, a knife, a hammer and a plastic bag with some money still in it as well as some clothes.

A check of CCTV revealed that these matched the robber.

The court heard that Montieth had 46 previous convictions with some of them being for robbery.

Judge Philip Babington said he was not finding Montieth dangerous as while there was a risk he would re-offend there was not a real threat of harm.

He said while Montieth threatens violence he had not used it.

The judge said that while a defence barrister had called it a 'foolish and harebrained' scheme he believed there was an element of premeditation to the incident.

He said the dropping of the keys was 'unfortunate for the defendnat'.

Judge Babington said that Montieth had spent a great deal of time in custody and had only been released from prison some five months prior to this offence.

He said that Montieth was rarely out long enough for probation to help him.#

Describing the robbery as 'serious anti social behaviour' Judge Babington imposed a sentence of 6 years on Montieth half of which will be spent in custody.