Court told of masked raid shop terror

The terrified woman and a lone customer ran screaming into the rear of the Happy Shopper store in Evenwood, near Bishop Auckland, where they locked themselves in while trying to ring the police, Durham Crown Court was told.

One of the young raiders tried to pull the electric till from the counter, but as it was still plugged in by a socket he removed the drawer before fleeing with his accomplice.

A neighbour who heard the disturbance came into the shop and saw the main body of the till lying near the door.

She informed the shocked women hiding in the back of the premises that the robbers had fled and it was safe to come out.

Andrew Walker, prosecuting, said one of the women was so shaken that she was physically sick as a result of the ordeal.

Mr Walker said the getaway vehicle, a Vauxhall Nova stolen earlier from a West Auckland dry cleaning business car park, was seen being driven away at speed with both robbers still wearing their masks.

Forty minutes later it was found abandoned, having crashed into a metal gate leading to a field in Leazes Lane, St Helen Auckland.

Mr Walker said the pair were arrested four days later and were found to have scratch marks on their legs from barbed wire they had climbed over in the field after the car crashed.

Two masks and two pairs of gloves were found at the home of one of the youths, while a pick-axe handle, similar to the weapons used in the raid, was recovered from a rear yard.

Mr Walker added that the £260 in the till drawer was never recovered, while damage was estimated at £2,200.

Before the court was a 17-year-old youth from a County Durham village, who admitted the April 6 robbery and aggravated vehicle taking.

He was given a two-year detention and re-training order and banned from driving for 12 months.

A formal "not guilty" verdict was recorded against his co-accused, another teenager, after the prosecution offered no evidence earlier this week.