A man with drug and mental health issues robbed a local convenience store at knifepoint. Ross Warren shouted at terrified staff to hand over cash after storming into a One Stop store in Cardiff on February 3 this year.
A sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court heard Warren, 32, walked into the One Stop store in Clive Road in Canton at 9.35pm that evening wearing a high-vis vest and trousers, sunglasses, baseball cap, boots, white mask, and disposable gloves. There he shouted at two staff members to "take the f***ing money out of the till" and shoved a bag underneath the plastic dividing screen at the counter.
The court heard Warren, of Neville Street, Riverside, brandished a kitchen knife towards terrified staff, two of whom were behind the screen and began opening the tills and handing over the cash. After receiving around £540 in cash the defendant walked out of the shop as a customer was walking in. The shop door was locked and police were called.
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Gareth James, prosecuting, told the court Warren fled the shop and discarded the knife in Romilly Road West before later dispensing with the sunglasses, vest, mask, and other clothing. However his mask was later recovered and its DNA matched his and Warren was later arrested at his address on February 22 where he was also in possession of a small amount of cannabis.
Mr James said the shop had suffered financially from the incident. As well as losing the £540 stolen it was forced to shut for five hours on the following Saturday, resulting in an estimated almost £1,000 in lost trade. One of the shop workers, Leah Southam, had a statement read on her behalf in which she spoke about having to take time off after the incident as she "couldn't face going back to where she was threatened with a knife".
The statement said Ms Southam, who had worked at One Stop for more than three years, tried to return to work but said she still had to work nights and no longer felt comfortable resulting in her eventually handing in her notice. She also spoke of having dreams about the incident and being worried about bumping into Warren on the street.
Hashim Salmman, mitigating, said Warren, who has seven previous offences on his record, had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity to two counts of robbery, one count of possessing a bladed article, and one count of possessing a Class B drug. He said the defendant had previously been a good worker but that his life had taken a downward turn after he lost his job. He was threatened with eviction and stopped taking his regular antidepressants before becoming addicted to cocaine. Mr Salmman said Warren had since completed study courses while in custody, where he was also employed in waste management, and had been referred to the mental health team at HMP Cardiff.
Recorder Andrew Hammond acknowledged Warren's guilty pleas and personal circumstances but said the incident would have been "truly terrifying" for the One Stop staff as well as financially hurting the store. Citing his concealment of his identity, the fact the incident happened at night, and the attempts to discard evidence Recorder Hammond also said Warren was in breach of a suspended sentence handed down on June 21, 2021, and sentenced him to 46 months in prison. He will serve half of that time in custody with the remainder to be served on licence. A statutory surcharge will also be payable while the knife and cannabis will be forfeited and destroyed.
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