Armed man who robbed Ayr Newsagents jailed
An armed robber who terrorised women shop staff after threatening to shoot them during a raid was jailed for four years today.
An armed robber who terrorised women shop staff after threatening to shoot them during a raid was jailed for four years today.
Alistair Hood burst into a newsagents wearing a balaclava and brandishing a gun before shouting: "Get down or I'll shoot."
22 year old Hood told one sales assistant to give him the money and added: "I'll blow your head off."
Two teenage girls saw him pull out a gun as he went into the shop in Content Street, in Ayr, and ran to a friend's house and called police.
Hood was found in a close after the raid and armed response officers were called in. He told them the weapon was the "real deal" and said: "There's one in the chamber."
He was eventually persuaded to surrender after police firearms and a taser were trained on him.
The gun was recovered and was found to be a blank firing pistol which was incapable of discharging bullets.
Hood, of Ayr, earlier admitted assaulting Christine Brennan and Tracy Murphy, employees at McColls, on Janury 17th this year and robbing them of £175. He also admitted possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause the victims to believe unlawful violence would be used against them.
A judge at the High Court in Edinburgh told him: "This was a senseless, unprovoked and terrifying attack on two women engaged in their employment."
Lady Wolffe told him: "I am satisfied that there is no alternative to a custodial sentence."
The judge told him he would have faced a sentence of six years' imprisonment, but for his early guilty plea in the case.