A man who held up a Northumbrian petrol station at knifepoint has been jailed for three and a half years.
Reece Gillon, 34, entered the Asda forecourt in Prudhoe at 7:25am on April 26 this year and pointed a knife at the cashier, telling them “Open the till, give me the money”.
Newcastle Crown Court heard that Gillon, who was wearing a mask at the time, was given £178.12 by the staff member, who alerted police after he left the scene.
Officers found a kitchen knife with a six-inch blade in a grassy area close to the garage, Newcastle Chronicle reports. Gillon was later arrested, and on his phone was found a message that asked “Did you have gloves on?”, to which he replied “Yeah and balaclava”. Another message suggested the sender could hide the clothes Gillon had been wearing.
In mitigation, Gillon’s legal team said he had been witness to violence at home as a child and began taking drugs when he was 12 or 13, a habit that continued into his adult life.
The Recorder, Andrew Latimer, told Gillon “It’s important I don’t forget how vulnerable shop workers are, especially if they’re working alone”, and that the robbery was “done to get money for drugs,” although he added Gillon was making attempts to get off drugs and this showed ”that there is more to you than the man who went into a petrol station masked and armed ready to steal”.
Sentencing Gillon to three and a half years in custody, Latimer said: “I hope that you get the help you need in prison so that when you come out you will be someone who can live in society and won’t be a threat to anybody else.”
