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East Malling teenager Ross Willetts robbed One Stop in Ditton at gun point

A “cool as a cucumber” teenager who terrified a shop worker when he held him up with a loaded pistol has been jailed for more than three years.

Clad in a boiler suit, gloves and a balaclava, lanky Ross Willetts presented a sinister figure as he entered the One Stop store in Ditton at 10.15pm after cycling there on his mountain bike.

Prosecutor Simon Shannon said manager Abid Shujah was preparing to close when confronted by the 17-year-old robber with a gun in one hand and a bag in the other.

Willetts ordered him to take the money out of both tills in the shop and to empty them into the bag. He calmly walked out with £530 and rode off on his bike.

Police spoke to a group of youths who had been nearby and saw the teenager arrive and leave the area.

The robbery was captured on CCTV and shown at Maidstone Crown Court on Thursday.

"The shopkeeper has still not returned to work. He is frightened to go out. The effect is unusual and severe. This is what happens when people think they are going to be shot when alone at night in a shop" - Judge Charles Macdonald QC

Mr Shannon said when police went to Willetts’ home in Owen Close, East Malling, he at first claimed he had been there all evening.

A search of his bedroom revealed a tin of .22 calibre airgun pellets.

His stepsister told officers he had left that evening on a mountain bike and that he owned a handgun and a balaclava.

They went to the friend’s house and found the bike in the garden. The bag containing the pistol and balaclava was in an outhouse.

The gloves and some coins were also recovered but not the rest of the cash or the boiler suit.

Willetts then made full admissions, saying he loaded the pistol with a pellet so that he could fire it into the air to scare the victim.

The banknotes were recovered after Willetts, who admitted robbery and possessing an imitation firearm with intent, revealed they were in his friend’s bedroom.

He said the reason for the robbery was that a few nights earlier he had stolen a catapult from a pick-up truck and caused damage. The owner found out and demanded £400 from him.

Mr Shannon said the raid on September 19 last year lasted just one minute and 20 seconds but Mr Shujah was so traumatised he had not been able to return to work.

The prosecution had said of Willetts at an earlier hearing: “He was as cool as a cucumber. It is shocking that someone his age could commit this robbery.”

Sentencing the teenager to three years and four months youth custody, Judge Charles Macdonald QC told him: “It was a planned offence.

"The shopkeeper has still not returned to work. He is frightened to go out. The effect is unusual and severe.

“This is what happens when people think they are going to be shot when alone at night in a shop.”

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