Clydebank Post | News | Raider waited in line to rob shop

Monday, 8th September, 2008

Published: Wednesday, 16th January, 2008 09:40

Raider waited in line to rob shop

By Court Reporter

A DOZY raider without a mask tried to hold up a busy shop where he was a well-known customer of 15 years.

Pint-sized George Smart even waited his turn in a queue before threatening the shocked staff with a gun — a toy pistol — the High Court in Glasgow heard.

But after fleeing empty handed Smart, 40, turned himself in to cops the following day.

Vinit Khurana, prosecuting, said: “The accused entered and stood in the queue.

“When he got to the front he said: ‘Give me all the money from the till’.

“He then pulled out what appeared to be a real gun and said: ‘Do you know what this is?’.”

Shop assistant Kirsten Campbell, 22, told Smart she needed to get a key to open the till and went to the back of the shop where she alerted the owner who phoned the police.

Smart asked the other assistant, 29-year-old Yousif Ali, why it was taking so long, before finally walking out of the shop empty-handed.

Firearms officers arrived and searched the area but no trace of Smart or the gun was found.

The failed robber eventually handed himself into police and confessed what he had done.

In court, Smart admitted assaulting Mr Ali by presenting an imitation firearm at him and demanding money with intent to rob him at around 6pm on March 3, last year.

The offence was committed at the Spar Store in Baldwin Avenue, Knightswood.

Niall McCluskey, defending, said: “The pistol was a toy capable only of firing caps.

“Mr Smart has come to serious offending at a late stage in life.

“The witnesses in the shop knew him because he was a regular customer and had been going to the shop for 10 to 15 years.

“He feels particularly bad about what happened because he knew the people in the shop.

“The witnesses also said they were taken aback.

“This offence is very much out of character.”

Judge Lord Brodie told Smart: “It may have been a cap gun, but to someone behind the counter it would look real enough. The thing in the foremost of my mind is sending you to custody.”

Smart, of 41 Towerhill Road, Knightswood, was allowed bail while background reports are compiled and will be sentenced next month.

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