A bungling thief who robbed a Perth grocery store while wearing a pillowcase with eye holes cut into it has been jailed for four years.
Heroin addict David Reid was high on a cocktail of drink and drugs when he raided the Supersaver shop on Dunkeld Road in a desperate attempt to get cash.
The 21-year-old had only been released from a young offenders’ facility four days previously, having served the best part of a seven-month sentence in connection with another theft.
Entering the shop, Reid used a screwdriver to threaten teenage staff member Ramzan Sultan before making off with £90, bottles of Buckfast and cigarettes.
However, the hapless robber was caught out when he shed his makeshift disguise in the store as it kept slipping over his eyes.
He was instantly recognised as he removed the pillowcase and was caught just 10 minutes later by police, still in possession of the bulk of the stolen goods and his second-rate disguise.
Perth Sheriff Court heard that Mr Sultan (18), had been alone in the shop when the masked Reid burst in. He brandished the screwdriver at the teen, shouting, “Give me your money, give me your money.”
Mr Sultan was understandably shaken and frightened and handed over two £10 notes and six £5 notes to the drug addict. Reid helped himself to a further four bags of coins, containing around £40, together with some bottles of alcohol and packets of cigarettes.
He fled before adding to his haul, having been panicked as a member of the public entered the shop.
At this point Mr Sultan activated a panic alarm and the police were contacted.
Reid’s solicitor, Linda Clark, said her client was a heroin addict and that in the days following his release from detention he had consumed “a cocktail of substances really anything he could lay his hands on.”
The drugs apparently included alcohol, heroin, diazepam and anti-depressants.
Mrs Clark said her client could remember little of the incident, but accepted he had carried out the robbery.
“It wasn’t a particularly well-enacted offence, because he took the mask off while in the shop, ensuring he was identified,” the solicitor added.
Reid, of The Rookery, Perth, admitted assaulting and robbing Ramzan Sultan at the Supersaver store on March 21 this year, and that with his face masked and brandishing a screwdriver he demanded money from him and robbed him of wine, cigarettes and money.
Sentencing Reid to a lengthy period of imprisonment, to gasps from the public benches, Sheriff Lindsay Foulis stressed the gravity of the accused’s offence.
“For someone who has just turned 21 in January, your record is quite appalling,” he said. “There are court orders breached, crimes of violence, crimes of dishonesty, a significant history of offending while on bail and, to cap it all, this offence, committed by you just four days after you were released from a seven-month sentence.
“There is only one way I can deal with this matter.”
He imposed a four-year sentence together with a two-year extended sentence following the accused’s release.
The sheriff told Reid, “Because of the gravity of this offence, because of your record and because of the content of the social work reports before me I consider that the public should be adequately protected against harm from you.”