The bank robber who stood in queue for 15 mins
Staff let masked man wait ... because they thought he had a skin condition
WHEN they spotted a customer in the queue wearing a hooded coat, mask, blue latex gloves and sunglasses, bank staff were far too polite to challenge him.
They were worried the man could be hiding a skin condition and, naturally, did not want to cause offence.
Other customers, however, were less trusting of Simon Jones’s behaviour on a hot day in late spring. One even took a photo as the robber, who was carrying a bottle of air freshener Febreze and a holdall, quietly waited in line for 15 minutes at the branch of NatWest in Bishop Auckland, Co Durham.
When he reached the front of the queue, Jones, 38, handed the female cashier a note demanding money, saying he had acid in the bottle and a bomb. Terrified, Victoria Smith bundled £370 into Jones’s holdall. She had the presence of mind also to put in a decoy £1,000 bundle containing a NatWestapproved tracking device.
However, the device failed to work and Jones might have escaped – had witnesses not noted details of his car as he fled, Durham Crown Court heard yesterday.
Bank manager Gemma Hughes had not confronted Jones as she was worried that his strange clothing was needed for a skin condition and did not want to offend him, said prosecutor Jane Waugh.
‘Suspicions were aroused because of the appearance of the defendant and the fact he was rather obviously trying to avoid the security cameras,’ she said.
The manager approached the defendant as he waited in the queue and asked if she could help him. He replied no.’ Judge Christopher Prince asked: ‘So it was a hot
day, he was wearing a coat with the hood up, carrying a big bottle of Febreze, wearing sunglasses, a mask, blue plastic gloves and yet he was just observed as he made his way to the front of the queue, where Victoria Smith was left to be threatened by a man who said he had a bomb and acid?’
Miss Waugh said: ‘The manager... trod a careful line between upsetting someone who might have had to wear such things to protect their
skin or have a nasty motive for such a disguise. One customer said he “didn’t look quite right”.’
The court heard that Miss Smith had needed months off work. In a statement she said she had nightmares about the incident. ‘I felt like I was in a parallel universe where this was not happening to me. There were children in the bank in pushchairs, other staff and customers. We all could have been hurt,’ she added. Jones, of West
Auckland, had researched how to rob a bank online and took his girlfriend’s red Ford Fiesta when she went to walk her dog on May 17. He admitted robbery.
Chris Baker, defending, said Jones had addictions to gambling and alcohol. The bottle he carried had contained Febreze, not acid. Jones had written letters for the staff to say he was ‘genuinely sorry’ for what he had done, he said.