A pair of thugs who robbed a Burntisland newsagent owner and “charged” him with a hammer have been jailed.
Paul Gemmell and Stuart Graham entered Jason’s newsagents in the town’s high street and assaulted Mohammed Arshad by pushing him to the ground and repeatedly kicking him in the body to his injury.
The pair then made off with £480 from the till.
Mr Arshad was left with minor cuts and bleeding to the face and bruising and grazes to his left elbow, as well as suffering pains to his chest from being kicked.
The duo, both prisoners in Perth, admitted the robbery charge when they appeared in the dock at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court from custody this week.
‘He gave me a good kicking’
Procurator fiscal depute Jamie Hilland told the court Gemmell and Graham entered the town centre shop at around 6:35am on September 29 2020 and tried to buy items using a mobile phone but were told by the shop owner he only accepted cash.
They left and returned a couple of minutes later and Gemmell was holding a hammer.
The fiscal depute said the 40-year-old then “charged towards” Mr Arshad, who was standing behind the sales counter.
He ran into him, causing him to fall into the cigarette counter.
Speaking after the court case this week, Mr Arshad said: “I knew the two guys who came in and had served them before, so my guard was not up.
“When I was charged with the guy holding the hammer and knocked back, my reaction was just to hold a hand up and brush the hammer aside and it fell out of his hand.
“I was lucky. He gave me a good kicking.
“I had a black eye. It was a stamp.”
Mr Arshad, who has run the newsagent for 15 years, said it was not the first time he had been robbed but he had not been physically assaulted before.
He said the community had been very supportive following the incident.
Gemmell ‘fell out’ of taxi
Gemmell admitted a second offence of assaulting and attempting to rob a taxi driver in Kirkcaldy on a separate occasion in May last year.
The court heard he got into the passenger seat of a taxi, being driven by self-employed Kevin Hopgood, at Kirkcaldy train station.
As the taxi was being driven towards Beveridge Road, Gemmell asked the driver to pull over.
He then turned to the driver holding a blunt object and demanded money.
He gave me a good kicking. I had a black eye. It was a stamp.”
— Robbery victim Mohammed Arshad.
The fiscal depute said: “The taxi driver grabbed the accused’s wrist and neck to try and disarm him and this resulted in the two men struggling.
“The complainer put the taxi in gear and drove down the street.
“The accused let go of Mr Hopgood and fell out on to the road before getting up and running away.”
The court heard the driver believed the object to be a knife but it was accepted by the Crown to be a large cellar key for a lock-up where Gemmell kept some gardening tools.
Drug problems
Gemmell’s defence lawyer, Calum Harris, said his client had been taking large amounts of alcohol, street Valium and crack cocaine at the time he attempted to rob the taxi driver.
The solicitor said Gemmell was also taking street Valium at the time of the newsagent robbery and is “deeply regretful” of the injuries caused to Mr Arshad.
Mr Harris said Gemmell had been carrying the hammer for his own protection and it was merely there “as a prop” and not used on anyone in the shop.
Mr Harris said: “It must be said that this is largely an opportunistic operation that’s been carried out.”
Graham’s defence lawyer, James McMackin, said his client was a habitual drug user and at the time of offence had tried to withdraw from heroin but became desperate and impulsively robbed the store.
The lawyer said Graham is remorseful for the fear caused to the shop owner and accepted custody will give him time to reflect.
Jailed
Sheriff Elizabeth McFarlane told the pair it seemed from their previous convictions that shoplifting and theft is “more of a habit than your drug addiction.”
She said: “Maybe you did not have any intention but as soon as you walk in that’s what happens because that’s what you do, and you need to break that habit.
“You are going to prison, gentlemen, given your record.”
The sheriff sentenced Gemmell to a total of three years in prison, backdated to May 10.
Graham was sentenced to two years in prison, backdated to March 24.
The sheriff added: “Use your time in prison to do what you can to come out and be the better men you have told me about.”
Mr Arshad said he was satisfied with their sentences and has no sympathy for them.
Less than a year before, the same shop was targeted by a weapon-wielding thug.
The 16-year-old had tried to rob the nearby Co-op and chased staff into Jason’s where they sheltered as the teenager battered on the shutters with a metal baton.
