A shop owner sent a robber who brandished a 7in blade at her packing after waving a craft knife right at him and saying he would have to wait as she was having a CUPPA.
Drug user Stuart Gleeson hung around Karamjit Sangha’s newsagents for several minutes before entering and demanding cash.
But unflustered Mrs Sangha put down her cup of tea and waved the craft knife she was using to open the papers back at him and he ran off.
Mrs Sangha, 49, said: “I was just sitting there having my cup of tea when he came in holding this 7in kitchen knife.
“He told me to give him all the money, but I was relaxed. I told him I was having a cup of tea.
“He demanded I put it down and give him the money.
“I said ‘OK’ and picked up the craft knife and waved it at him. I wouldn’t have hurt him, but it was enough to scare him. He started shaking and then he ran off.”
CCTV cameras caught the movements of Gleeson both before and after the attempted robbery in Sangha newsagents in Hull, East Yorks.
He was jailed for a total of five years on Friday (September 16) at Hull Crown Court.
The jury had taken just a few hours to find Gleeson guilty of attempted robbery and possession of a knife following a trial last week.
The jury had been shown CCTV footage of Gleeson, 35, before the robbery which the defendant admitted was him, but he denied images of the suspect running from the scene afterwards were him.
But Patrick Palmer, prosecuting told the jury: “It would be a truly astonishing case if there were two men with the same build, same hair and same clothing on that part of Beverley Road at the same time.
“There is more chance of us all winning the National Lottery this weekend. A coincident like this could not possibly happen.”
Gleeson, from Hull, initially argued he did not even get up until after the robbery was committed at around 7.30am on May 26.
But he changed his story when CCTV clearly captured him in the area before the robbery was committed.
He then claimed he did not go back towards Sangha’s, but down towards the city centre to meet a friend in Wellington Street.
After delivering guilty verdicts on both counts, Judge Mark Bury told the jury Glesson has previous convictions for knifepoint robberies.
Judge Bury said: “There was no long-term harm caused and the incident was short-lived.
“But there was a degree of planning with this attempted robbery. You waited for several minutes until the coast was clear.
“The shop worker must have been extremely frightened when you waved the knife at her.”
Gleeson was jailed for four-a-half years for the attempted robbery and possession of a knife.
Mrs Sangha, from Hull, described her satisfaction with the punishment handed down to Gleeson.
She said: “This sentence is fantastic. The police were really good and they managed to gather a lot of evidence. Something like this has never happened to me before. But people shouldn’t feel sorry for me, they should feel sorry for him. He just got scared and that was it.
“It hasn’t put me off my job and it hasn’t had any lasting effect on me. You just have to get on with it.”
Gleeson was also handed a further six months in jail for possessing counterfeit currency which he had previously admitted.
His co-accused Raymond Bilby, 28, was also jailed for 12 months after admitting the offence.
The court heard how the men were found with fake £10 notes which they had tried to use at a Poundland, McDonald’s and a bookies in the city centre on March 1.
