A shoeless crook held-up a Dundee Co-op with a screwdriver for tobacco and a lighter.
Nicholas McKenzie, 42, carried out his raid early one morning last December, just as the Brook Street store had opened.
He told the shop worker, Luke Hibbart, he would be taking the cash from his register, as he flashed the hilt of a blue item from inside his sleeve.
Although he believed it to be a knife, brave Mr Hibbart closed the till and the door to the cash desk area, preventing McKenzie getting any money.
McKenzie took the tobacco and lighter without paying and left the shop.
He was traced by police around an hour later, shoeless, covered in mud and badly injured.
‘You are going to empty your till’
Depute fiscal Gavin Barton told Dundee Sheriff Court: “At around 6.20am the accused (re) entered the store, having entered 20 minutes earlier, and headed straight to the checkout.
“The accused asked for tobacco and a lighter.
“He then told Mr Hibbart ‘you are going to empty your till’.
“He showed the top of the what the witness thought, initially, was a knife.
“Mr Hibbart closed the till.
“The accused responded ‘I’ll take this then’, taking the tobacco and lighter with him.
“He put the blue-handled item in his back pocket.
“Police traced the accused at around 7.50am. He was not wearing any shoes.
“An opened pouch of tobacco was found in his jacket pocket.
“At around 9.50am, PC McDonald, a dog handler, found the blue-handled screwdriver.”
Collapsed lung
In mitigation, defence solicitor Theo Finlay said his client had pled guilty at the earliest opportunity and had “no recollection” of events.
“It is significant he was found in the street, covered in mud and without shoes.
“He was taken to hospital and found to have a collapsed lung.
“He was detained in hospital for a week.
“He has suspicions about how he came about these injuries but no recollection at all.
“He admits he had consumed street Valium, he was staying at the hostel on Brewery Lane.
“During lockdown he became lonely and frustrated and succumbed to street Valium.
“He does not have a good record for this sort of thing.”
Jailing McKenzie for more than a year, Sheriff Alastair Carmichael said: “This is a serious offence involving the implied use of a weapon.
“You in effect held up a shopkeeper.”
McKenzie was sentenced to seven months for the offence and returned to prison to serve the remaining 160 days of an unexpired sentence from a previous conviction.
