A bungling Arbroath knife robber who led police to his home with a trail of stolen cigarettes has been jailed for 20 months.
Drug addict Kyle Ronald’s raid on the grocery shop in West Port was described by a sheriff as being “as cack-handed as you get” but the terrifying incident led to the assistant he confronted giving up work at the premises just weeks later.
Last night the owner of the Premier shop in Keptie Street said last November’s robbery had been “shocking” for himself and the staff member after almost 10 years in business in the normally quiet street.
Ronald, of Perth Prison, had earlier pleaded guilty to an indictment alleging possession of a blade during the attempted robbery and returned to court for sentencing by Sheriff Gregor Murray at Forfar.
His solicitor told the court Ronald accepted “full culpability for his actions on that particular day”. But he said the accused had no memory of assaulting the shop worker.
The court previously heard Ronald went into the premises around 1.30pm.
Despite there being other customers in the shop, Ronald walked behind the counter and presented a kitchen knife at assistant Deepak Bhattarai.
He demanded that the till should be opened but Mr Bhattarai told him: “You have to go, please go.”
Ronald then grabbed 10 to 15 packets of cigarettes and fled the shop. Police who rushed to the scene were able to follow the trail of cigarettes to an address in Keptie Street.
The accused accepted he had gone to the shop armed with the knife and the intention of carrying out the robbery.
Sheriff Murray told Ronald: “Your case is a graphic illustration of the misery drugs can inflict on an individual and the community.”
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