Dairy owner thwarted raid

The Crown has described a Christchurch dairy owner as a hero after he sent two masked would-be robbers – one armed with a knife – sprinting from his store.

The jury in the Christchurch District Court trial was told yesterday it would be shown the security video footage from inside the Selwyn Dairy in Addington on June 5, 2018, when the short, dramatic incident happened.

Joshua James Allan, 37, denies being one of the robbers shown on the footage, and has pleaded not guilty to the attempted robbery charge. Another man, Jamal Richard Lawson, 30, has already pleaded guilty and has been dealt with.

Judge Tom Gilbert and Crown prosecutor Will Taffs both said identification was expected to be the key issue in the three-day trial.

Taffs said the jury would need to decide whether the clothing being worn by the person in the shop’s video – including a top with five white circles on the sleeves – was the same as the clothing being worn by Allan when police found him an hour later.

He said Allan had been charged with attempted robbery because nothing had been taken in the incident.

When the two masked, black-clad men entered, with Lawson holding a knife, the dairy owner pressed an alarm button and grabbed a softball bat. Lawson had tried to grab the cash register, but the pair sprinted from the shop in seconds.

He said the dairy owner emerged as a hero of the incident. Lawson, armed with the knife, ‘‘frankly got more than he bargained for’’.

The owner chased the pair to a car and reported the registration number to police.