A brave Dunfermline shopkeeper said he does not consider himself a hero despite wrestling a “handgun” from a would-be robber.
Despite being faced with a potentially deadly weapon Mr Babar bravely tackled Pearson, wrestling the weapon from him.
He then marched Pearson from the store with his own “gun” pointed at him, where he ran off.
Police officers later found the weapon to be a non-functioning airsoft pistol.
At Edinburgh High Court on Wednesday, Pearson, 28, from Dunfermline, admitted assaulting Mr Babar in a botched robbery attempt.
Delighted by conviction
Mr Babar said he was delighted to hear Pearson had admitted the charge as he had been unaware of the progress on the case.
He said: “It’s really good (to hear Pearson pled guilty) as its been nearly a year. I hadn’t had any phone calls or anything to keep me informed so I thought he must have got away with it.
“I’m quite chuffed and proud of the police that they got him.”
Speaking at his store on the town’s Townhill Road, Mr Babar said he took a chance in tackling Pearson.
“He came in the shop and got a basket and started gathering stuff and talking loudly.
“Suddenly he disappeared. I thought he’d got some stuff and ran away through the back door.
“I started looking and went into the wee room and he was just standing with a gun.
“He told me to sit down. I moved back and he came close to me so I just went for him.”
‘I thought it was a real gun’
“I thought it was a real gun. I thought I was going to be shot.
“I prepared myself for it to fire.
“I pointed his arm up, I thought if he shoots it it will just go up the way. I grabbed him and snatched the gun off him.
“You get a wee bit of fear thinking about what could happen.”
Despite his heroic actions, Mr Babar did not tell his wife and three adult children about the attempted robbery for several days.
“I didn’t tell them immediately, I told her two or three days later.
“My sons wanted to see the CCTV.
“Because he had a plastic gun I didn’t think he was right in the head but once I saw the CCTV I realised he must have planned it because he came at 6.30am and sat until we opened at 7am.
“But after watching the CCTV I began to think I should have let him go.”
However a humble Mr Babar downplayed his heroic actions, which occurred when two of his employees were on the premises.
“I’m not really a hero,” he said. “I did it for my my shop. But I would have done it for anyone.”
Machete robbery
It emerged after Wednesday’s case Pearson was already on licence for a 2014 robbery.
Shopkeeper Sakander Riaz was slashed 13 times with a machete as his Dunfermline shop was raised by the then-21-year-old and accomplice Samuel Craig.
The pair grabbed money and cigarettes from behind the counter before fleeing, leaving their victim with grievous injuries.
Pearson was jailed for four and half years with an extended two-year sentence.
He will be sentenced for his attack on Mr Babar – and a subsequent petrol station robbery in Dunfermline – at a later date.
