Bank robber rumbled by his getaway taxi
Driver recognised him
A masked gunman who robbed a Rutherglen bank minutes after telling a pal “I’m skint” has been jailed for eightand-a-half years.
Jason Spencer, 41, walked into the TSB bank in Main Street with a gun inside a carrier bag and ordered staff to hand over cash.
Spencer pushed customers, including an 81-year-old woman, out of the way to get to the teller positions.
He had the gun in his hand and kept saying: “Give me the money and don’t press any buttons.”
Last Wednesday at the High Court in Glasgow Spencer was convicted of robbing the bank of £590 in cash on January 23 and having a firearm or an imitation firearm.
The court heard that Spencer, who has five pages of previous convictions, was released in September 2017 from a four-year sentence for an armed robbery at a bookmakers across the road from the bank.
Lord Justice Clerk Lady Dorrian told Spencer: “You have an appalling record. This must have had a shocking effect on bank staff and customers.”
In evidence Spencer claimed that the man captured on CCTV robbing the bank was not him.
He said: “That man on the CCTV footage is not wearing glasses. I always wear glasses. I can’t see a thing without them.”
However, a number of police officers identified Spencer as the robber.
The court heard that Spencer fled from the scene with the stolen cash. He used his phone to order a taxi in an assumed name but the taxi driver recognised him.
Prosecutor Duncan McPhie said: “A 61-yearold customer was so upset by the robbery that an ambulance had to be called for her.
“Just before entering the bank branch and putting on his mask Spencer chatted to a friend he met and told him: ‘I’m skint.’”
Defence counsel Mark Moir said: “My client’s position is that he was not the robber.”
Spencer, of Blantyre, showed no emotion as he was led away to begin his sentence.