A shop worker started sleepwalking after a customer approached the till under the guise of buying chocolate before robbing her at knifepoint.
On one occasion, Gary Simpson's victim even woke her daughter in the middle of the night and made her breakfast while sleeping. His attack came only hours after he had targeted a man whose beloved dog was about to be put down in a heartless theft.
Liverpool Crown Court heard this week that Lee Ryder used an ATM at the Co-op on Orford Lane in Warrington to withdrawn £200 at around 10am on August 27 this year as he "needed the money to have his dog put to sleep". Peter Killen, prosecuting, described how Simpson tailed him out of the shop then took the cash out of his hand as he walked past him.
