A man who threatened petrol station staff with a fake gun has been jailed for four years after a hearing at Maidstone Crown Court.
According to KentOnline, Michael Pollock was “off his face” on drink and drugs when he stormed into the BP garage in London Road, Bapchild, near Sittingbourne, on October 12 last year.
Pollock had called the site before entering and asked staff whether the cash machine was working and what time the shop shut.
CCTV footage then shows Pollock entering the store at around 9.30pm. He approached a member of staff, who was working on the shopfloor, and pulled out a small handgun from his hoodie and threatened him. Pollock said: “I am going to shoot you if you do not come and open the cash machine.”
While this was happening another member of staff pushed the panic button behind the counter. Pollock then turned his attention to this member of staff and threatened to kill him. While pointing the gun at the man behind the till, Pollock grabbed a 20cl bottle of Bell’s whisky but dropped it. He also managed to grab notes from the cash drawer. At this point, the staff member snatched the “gun” from Pollock, realised that it was fake and threw it at him as he fled the store.
Both workers followed Pollock out of the shop, demanding he return the stolen cash.
Pollock, who has 18 previous convictions for 35 offences including burglary and shoplifting, admitted two counts of possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence and a charge of robbery when he initially appeared at Maidstone Crown Court last November.
Handing down sentencing on March 25, Judge Lee Harris, said: “This is not a Hollywood movie. It’s hard to overestimate how scary what you did was to those poor people.
“Imagine that was you going about your daily business, and someone came in and threatened you with a gun.
“What makes this worse is that you had planned this. You wanted them to be scared.”
Judge Harris sentenced Pollock to six years and two months in prison. He must serve two-thirds of this before he has any chance of parole.
