A have-a-go hero delivery driver hit a robber on the head with a plank of wood after he raided a pharmacy armed with a knife.
Carl Llewellyn was also tackled by a chemist after storming the premises and demanding money and drugs. Meanwhile, an off-duty unleashed a furious tirade at the 38-year-old then apologised to staff and said "I've only come to get a covid test".
Liverpool Crown Court heard today, Thursday, that he targeted Green Cross Pharmacy in Bewsey, Warrington, at around 10.15am on July 5 this year. Derek Jones, prosecuting, described how customer Neil Schofield spotted Llewellyn and an unidentified male "acting shiftily" outside.
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The defendant went into the Allen Street store, while his accomplice remained in the doorway and told the nurse "it was closed and he couldn't go in". Inside, the robber - who had the hood of his jacket up - brandished a knife, demanded that the three female staff and pharmacist open the till, hand over the cash and "not to press anything".
Llewellyn then ordered them to hand over diazepam tablets. One worker threw some packets of the drugs onto the floor next to him.
As the drug addict went to pick them up, Mr Schofield entered and "bravely" began bellowing at him - including saying "get the f*** down". The chemist then tackled Llewellyn, causing him to drop the weapon.
He picked the blade up again and ran out the back door, but delivery man Thomas Greenwood spotted him trying to climb over a gate and into an alleyway. And he too attempted to tackle the offender.
Llewellyn responded by waving the knife at him while shouting "get the f*** out of my way". Mr Greenwood then picked up a wooden plank and hit him in the area around his head and shoulder area.
The wood snapped as a result of the force of the blow. Llewellyn again dropped the knife, leaving it at the scene and being chased away with the small amount of pilfered drugs. Mr Greenwood was left with blood on his hands following the incident, although it is unclear whether this was caused by the knife or the broken implement he had used himself.
Llewellyn - of Yardley Avenue - was identified by CCTV footage captured in the shop, and was arrested the next day. The video was played to the court, and he was heard to say in it: "Get the cash out right now - don't do nothing.
"I don't want to harm anybody. Stand where you are, open the till.
"Get me diazepam now, quickly. Hurry up, now."
Meanwhile, Mr Schofield was heard to say after the commotion died down: "Sorry about that. I've come to get a covid test."
Statements were read out on behalf of some of the employees. One, Julie Holt, described how the "incident plays on her mind" while her daughters asked her to quit her job.
Another, Laura Mason, had a panic attack afterwards and said her "heart rate goes up" when the pharmacy's door opens. She "feels vulnerable and intimidated while at work", and intends to leave her role and move to a new home.
Llewellyn, who appeared via video link to HMP Altcourse wearing a black Adidas zip-up top, has 24 previous convictions - including for three offences of robbery. One saw him locked up for 18 months in 2001, followed by a three-year stretch in 2003.
He was jailed for a further three years in 2015 after pulling a knife on a taxi driver. Llewellyn also has convictions for assault occasioning actual bodily harm, burglary, battery and possession of drugs on his record and had been out on bail at the time of his latest crime - later receiving eight weeks for theft from a motor vehicle.
Anne Pope, defending, told the court that her client's drug addiction "has been at the root of his offending throughout his life" and that he was homeless at the time. She added: "Mr Llewellyn is in no doubt he is going to receive a substantial custodial sentence today, he recognises that.
"It was clearly an unpleasant, frightening incident committed by someone looking for money and drugs in broad daylight on a Tuesday morning. When emotion is heightened due to incidents in his personal life, that is when his addiction spirals out of control.
"This year, he suffered the death of his father in February. It doesn't excuse or mitigate his behaviour in any way, but it helps to explain his downward spiral in addiction.
"He has had time to reflect on how his behaviour impacted others - he is seeing things a lot more clearly now than he was on that day."
Llewellyn admitted robbery and possession of a bladed article in a public place and was jailed for six years. Sentencing, Judge David Aubrey KC said: "You know only too well that these offences are so serious that only an immediate custodial sentence is justified for them.
"You have a long history of addiction to controlled drugs. I am told at the time you were in a downward spiral in consequence of the death of your father.
"You reverted to the consumption of controlled drugs. Furthermore, at the relevant time you were homeless and sleeping rough.
"None of that can justify what you did with an accomplice on that day. You cared not for their welfare at all, such was your determination on this morning in question.
"You were determined to rob them for a quantity of diazepam. It is apparent that this offence was planned and premeditated, at least to some extent.
"They were vulnerable, and some of them at the very least were in fear. Some of them were perhaps far more stoic than one would otherwise anticipate having been confronted by a man with his hood up, pointing a knife at them.
"You are about to embark upon a much longer sentence than any you have hitherto served. It is quite apparent this offence was committed during your addiction to drugs - it is hoped that during the course of this sentence that issue will be managed and hopefully resolved."
Forfeiture and destruction of the knife was also ordered. Judge Aubrey commended the delivery driver and chemist and directed that they be given rewards of £100 after acting "with no concern for their own safety".
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