Workers tell of terror in raid on shop
DUO JAILED FOR FAKE HANDGUN ROBBERY
Dennis Medley, left, and Daniel Ennis who have been jailed TWO young shop workers told how they thought they would be shot dead after a masked robber armed with a fake handgun burst into a convenience store and demanded cash from the tills.
Daniel Ennis, who also armed himself with a crowbar, pointed the imitation firearm directly at them as his accomplice, Dennis Medley, acted as a look-out.
Before the pair were jailed for six years each, Ennis - a roulette machine gambling addict who was taking amphetamine and MDMA at the time of the raid - wrote a letter to the judge claiming: ‘If I could turn back time, I would.’
He added: “This will be my last prison sentence as I need to think of my children as they are the only family I have got.”
The robbers, both from Oldham, escaped with £400 from the One Stop store on Moston Lane East, in New Moston on June 10, but were quickly caught by police who analysed CCTV images and traced their getaway car, a Ford Focus.
The women were working behind the tills and stocking up when the thugs struck when the store was empty at 6.35pm, Manchester Crown Court heard.
Ennis screamed: “Give me the ******* money, get it out of the till,” at one of them as he brandished the black handgun. He added: “Hurry up. Give me the ******* twenties.”
Gavin Howie, prosecuting, told the court yesterday how Ennis then moved to a second till and bundles of cash were handed over.
He said: “They grabbed what they could and ran to a car outside. The two members of staff were left terrified and frightened.”
Ennis, 33, formerly of Failsworth, and Medley, 53, of Beard Street, Royton, pleaded guilty to robbery and possession of an imitation firearm.
The women told of their terror in victim impact statements read out in court - with one saying she recalled fearing for her daughter’s future as Ennis pointed what she thought was a real gun at her. A single mum, she said: “I thought the gun was real. I thought the man was going to kill me. I was thinking what would have happened to my daughter without me.”
The second woman wrote: “Nobody has the right to put me in fear of my safety and steal from the shop.” Ennis wrote a letter to the judge ahead of sentencing, apologising to both women. Hugh McKee, defending Medley, said alcohol had been a ‘big problem’ for him for most of his life and he was his mother’s carer.
Judge Martin Walsh said Ennis and Medley arrived ‘clearly intent’ to commit robbery and both young women were left ‘traumatised.’ Female shop worker