A MAN desperate to repay mounting debts carried out a robbery at a village betting shop, while armed with an axe, a court heard.

But, having escaped with a bag containing more than £3,000 from Johnny Ridley’s bookmakers in Wingate, County Durham, Andrew Gallon made no secret of it when he returned home in the nearby village of Trimdon Station.

Durham Crown Court was told a neighbour saw Gallon carrying a blue bag, saying: “I’ve done it, I’ve done it, in Wingate,” as he entered his home, at about 3.30pm, on Tuesday September 15.

Penny Bottomley, prosecuting, said police were given the registration number of a car in which the man responsible was seen making off, following the raid.

Officers arrived at the address, in Trimdon Station, minutes after Gallon, and he was arrested as he was seen leaving the address.

Miss Bottomley told the court it appeared that neither the money, nor the axe were recovered after the robbery, as the bookmaker’s firm made a request for compensation.

She said earlier, Gallon entered the premises with a scarf covering his face and holding the axe above his head, shouting: “Give me all your money.”

An assistant initially thought it was someone, “mucking about”, until he walked round the counter, with the axe still raised.

She threw a cloth bag containing more than £3,000, and Gallon grabbed it before making off from the premises.

As the alarms sounded, a passer-by saw a man fleeing, before getting into a car parked nearby, enabling him to note the registration to pass on to police.

The court was told the defendant failed to turn up for a previous hearing, shortly before Christmas, but appeared in the dock having been arrested on a bench warrant.

When the robbery charge was put to him, 29-year-old Gallon, of Laburnum Crescent, pleaded guilty.

But the hearing was told he is “relatively lightly convicted”, with nothing of a similar nature on his record.

Tony Davis, mitigating, told the court: “This wasn’t a very sophisticated effort, using his own vehicle, wearing his own clothes, captured on cctv, in the middle of the day, seen by a number of witnesses, and apprehended shortly afterwards.

“He was bound to be caught.”

“It was born out of desperation, due to accumulated debts, and as soon as he commits it he goes and admits it.”

Mr Davis said Gallon was surprised to hear the money was not recovered as he did not have time to hide it anywhere, before being arrested.

Jailing him for three years, plus two weeks for failing to attend the previous hearing, Judge Christopher Prince ordered confiscation of Gallon’s car, as it was used in the crime.