Robber who used toy gun faces jail

A struggling businessman is behind bars after using a child’s toy gun in a string of raids in East Renfrewshire.

Ross Travers, 37, turned to crime after his insurance company went bust.

Travers first tried to hold up a petrol station worker two days before Christmas in 2016, but left empty handed when she thought it was a “prank”. The ex-company director then attempted to steal a guitar from a man on 9 March last year before later stealing about £100 cash from a Co-op supermarket.

Travers was later arrested for the crimes, which occurred in Clarkston and Busby.

The High Court in Glasgow yesterday heard how police swooped on Travers’ home and discovered his DNA on a fake gun in a bedroom. He now faces a lengthy jail term after he pled guilty to robbery, two attempted robberies and behaving in a threatening manner.

Travers, also of Busby, was yesterday remanded in custody pending sentencing in March.

Travers had been a director of a “relatively successful” insurance firm before it folded.