9 years in jail for thief who held up shop
CHRIS GEE AND JON MACPHERSON
AKNIFE robber has been given a nineyear sentence and classed as a ‘ dangerous offender’ after he left a shop worker ‘in fear of her life’ when he brandished the weapon in a convenience store.
Lewis Joseph Banham, 26, targeted the One Stop shop on King Street in Bacup on May 7, threatening the cashier with a knife, a court heard.
In an earlier incident on May 5 he swiped £175 cash from a till at McColls in Gladstone Street, Bacup, after leaning over the counter and pushing the shop assistant’s hand away.
Banham, formerly of Rawtenstall, pleaded guilty to robbery, theft and possessing a knife at Burnley Crown Court.
Prosecutor Stephen Parker told the court that the One Stop robbery took place at 10.40pm and involved a 52-year-old female shop assistant.
He said: “After asking for cigarette papers he produced a large kitchen knife and shouted ‘don’t move, give me all the money’.
“As a colleague of the woman approached the defendant jumped over the counter and used the knife to try and prise open the till.
“She said at this point she was extremely scared and didn’t know what he was capable of doing.”
Banham then left through a side door.
In a victim impact statement the shop worker said she had suffered anxiety and stress and sleep deprivation and was much more wary of people, especially those wearing hoodies.
The statement added: “I feared for my life and that of my colleague and the effect it would have on my family.”
The court heard that Banham had a previous conviction for robbery involving a knife which was conducted in an almost identical way in 2014 for which he was jailed for four years.
In total he had 17 convictions for 33 previous offences, including robbery, burglary and affray.
Defence barrister Philip Holden said although the possession of the knife was threatening he had made no verbal threats and never intended to use the weapon. He said his client was ‘immature’ and it was ‘an amateurish attempt at robbery’.
Judge Sara Dodd sentenced Banham to five years and six months in prison with an extended three-and-a-half years licence period.
She told the defendant: “You re-offend so regularly upon your release [ from prison], have very limited compliance with the supervision or licence provisions, you are regularly offending under the influence of drugs and of late your offending is always accompanied by the carrying of a knife. The combination of those features means that going forward you are to be assessed as posing a significant risk of serious harm to the public.”