Bungling robber who dropped keys to getaway car floored by shoppers
An armed robber was floored by a have-a-go hero having dropped the keys to the getaway car.
David Peebles realised his mistake after bursting into an Asda store in the city with two other masked men and then leaving with two tills they had ripped from the counter.
When the bungling robber re-entered the store to find his keys he was tackled by a member of the public and then held in the store until police arrived to arrest him.
Peebles was hoping to use the cash stolen in the robbery to pay off a drug debt, but is instead now starting a seven-year prison sentence having pleaded guilty to charges of robbery and possession of an offensive weapon.
He had been brandishing a crowbar during the robbery at Asda in Daventry Road, Cheylesmore , in November last year.
Peebles was sentenced today at Coventry Crown Court and the judge who jailed the 47-year-old, of London Road, Coventry, also awarded £250 to the have-a-go hero who helped detain the robber.
Judge Anthony Potter said the robbery “must have been a terrifying experience for the shoppers and members of staff”.
Speaking directly to Peebles, he said: “You attended, with two others, at the Asda store in Daventry Road, Coventry.
“The three of you plainly stormed in to a packed store and one of you shouted loudly and repeatedly you were committing a robbery and added that everyone should keep calm.
“That’s the last thing that was going to happen as he was brandishing a knife.”
He went on "it was clear that one of your number knew where the keys to the tills were" and one staff member was grabbed and told to open the tills, but it was only due to “someone with impressive speed of thought” to think to switch the power off that the robbers couldn’t access the tills.
Judge Potter said Peebles only returned to the store following the robbery as “it seems in your vigour the keys to the car had become dislodged".
The member of the public who first tackled Peebles back inside the store did so with “commendable courage”, the judge stated.
He added that "sadly" neither of the men who carried out the robbery with Peebles have ever been caught.
