Hartlepool shopkeeper and customer fought off desperate drug addict robber armed with glass bottle

Sean Bradley, 26, threatened the male shopkeeper of The Bungalow in Stratford Road with a glass bottle and demanded £100 while on drugs, Teesside Crown Court heard.

He claimed he did it because his drug habit was spiralling out of control and he wanted to go to prison to sort himself out.

Chris Baker, prosecuting, said Bradley was staggering when he entered the husband and wife run shop at 6.30am on October 2.

He picked up two glass bottles of soft drink and went towards the till where the male shopkeeper was standing.

Mr Baker said: “The defendant started waving the two bottles towards the store keeper and raised one of the bottles as though he was going to use it as a weapon and demanded £100.

"He was still threatening [the shopkeeper] who picked up a stick which he keeps behind the till.”

The store owner shouted to his wife to call the police and a customer who had been inside moments earlier went back in and tackled Bradley by putting him in a headlock and ordering him to drop the bottles.

He pushed Bradley out of the shop and he cycled away. He was identified by local police from CCTV footage.

He admitted attempted robbery and was jailed for two and a half years.

His barrister Stephen Constantine said Bradley’s life was a mess at the time after being reintroduced to hard drugs.

"It got to the stage where he said the only way out of this was to be locked up,” said Mr Constantine.

He added there was no force used or any money taken.

The court heard Bradley, of Waverley Terrace, Hartlepool, had come off drugs while on remand and he said: “My relationship with drugs is over.”

And he added: “I’m sorry for my actions.”

Judge Jonathan Carroll said shopkeepers provide a community service and are highly vulnerable due to the hours they work.

He said: “They had no other reason to think that you were anything other than a determined robber intending to take their cash and equipped yourself with two glass bottles as weapons.

"It must have been terrifying for them.”

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