Hartlepool man found guilty of terrifying knifepoint robbery on student in Tesco car park

A 19-year-old Hartlepool man has been found guilty of robbing a student at knifepoint in a Tesco car park in the early hours of the morning after the victim gave him a lift home.
Louis Wood, 19, was punched in the face and robbed of £5 and an £800 designer jacket by Jacob Mercer in Tesco car park after giving him a lift home.Louis Wood, 19, was punched in the face and robbed of £5 and an £800 designer jacket by Jacob Mercer in Tesco car park after giving him a lift home.
Louis Wood, 19, was punched in the face and robbed of £5 and an £800 designer jacket by Jacob Mercer in Tesco car park after giving him a lift home.

Jacob Mercer, admitted robbing Louis Wood, also 19, of a £5 note and an £800 designer jacket at around 2.30am at Tesco Express on Wiltshire Way, Throston, on May 6 last year.

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He said Mercer threatened to slash him with the weapon and also shouted he would kill him when he fled from his Vauxhall Corsa and ran away.

Mercer denied ever having a knife but he was found guilty by a majority of 10 jurors to 2 on Thursday after deliberating for around two and a half hours.

The court heard Mr Wood had been consistent in there being a knife, by stating so to the police and two strangers who found him in shock in the street.

Mr Wood’s property was later returned to him by Mercer’s family.

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Mercer, of Elwick Road, Hartlepool, has previous convictions for possessing offensive weapons and blades.

As a juvenile in May 2016 he was caught with an eight-inch knife and a hatchet.

Then in December 2017, he was found carrying a knife with a knuckleduster handle.

Sentencing was adjourned until December 6 and Mercer was granted bail.