Robber jailed for fake gun raid

Carl Ansell struck with an accomplice as shopkeeper Gail Southall was stacking shelves with assistant Phil Coley at Spar in Birmingham New Road, Lanesfield, Wolverhampton, in February the city's crown court heard.

The raiders, both wearing balaclava hoods, frogmarched the pair to the back of the store and demanded the keys to the safe, said prosecutor Mr Geoffrey Dann.

After Mrs Southall told them her husband had just taken the keys and cash to the bank, the robbers grabbed the cigarettes and fled, the court was told.

They escaped in a silver Peugeot 206 bought second hand by Ansell under a false name the previous day that was displaying registration plates stolen by him from a similar vehicle parked in Walsall hours earlier, said Mr Dann.

His car had been filmed by CCTV cameras parked outside convenience shops in Thornhill Road, Streetly, and Broadway North, Walsall in the 90 minutes before the February 14 Spar shop raid, said the lawyer. Mrs Southall, who has run the family business for 20 years, activated a panic alarm and police reached the scene moments after the robbers had left before flooding the area with officers.

A short time later a police patrol spotted 35-year-old Ansell walking along Dovedale Road in Ettingshall Park and stopped him because he appeared to be sweating profusely, the court was told.

He answered a description of one of the robbers and the Peugeot used in the robbery was found parked in a neighbouring street with the stolen cigarettes in the boot.

Ansell showed police where he had hidden the revolver used in the robbery that turned out to have been a BB gun. The stolen registration plates had been thrown into shrubbery in Lanesfield immediately after the raid.

Ansell from Linton Croft, Bilston, was said to have had a string of previous convictions, including several for burglary, and was on licence from jail after an earlier sentence.

He was also on bail following an incident during which he had butted a man at the Wolverhampton city centre bar Chicago Rock on July 22 last year, the court heard.

Mr Fergal Bloomer, defending, said: "These were both very unpleasant events but immediately the shopkeeper said there was no cash on the premises he concentrated on the cigarettes."

Ansell admitted robbery and assault and was sent to prison by Judge Nicholas Webb for 12 months for the incident at the bar and four years for the raid on the Spar.

The case against a second man arrested in connection with the robbery has been discontinued.

Speaking after the raid Mrs Southall said: "The robbery only lasted for a minute or so.

"I felt the gun was a fake – but you never know.

"I was a bit shook up but you can't let something like that affect you because you have got to be back at work the next day."