Knife robber terrified pet and pizza shop staff

A man who left staff terrified when he robbed a pet store and pizza shop with a knife has been jailed for six years and nine months.

Shaun Hodgson, 30, thrust the blade towards a woman at Pets at Home in Gateshead before stealing two charity boxes from the counter in November, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

Hours later he and accomplice Richard Temple, 41, targeted a pizza shop, with workers chasing one of the robbers away with a broom.

Both admitted robbery and possession of a knife, with Temple jailed for five years and three months, and Hodgson ordered to also serve an extra two years on extended licence upon his release from prison.

Hodgson, of no fixed abode, entered Pets at Home at about 18:45 GMT on 26 November and held a knife towards a checkout worker while demanding she hand over money, prosecutor Rachel Butt said.

He then used his 8in-long (20cm) blade to cut the strings from two charity boxes which he fled with, the court heard.

Two hours later he and Temple, of Hood Street in Swalwell, targeted a pizza shop, although prosecutors could not say which man did what, the court heard.

One of them initially entered with a 12in-long (30cm) knife held out and demanded money but was chased away by two shop workers, one of whom was armed with a broom and the other with a knife, Butt said.

A few minutes later, the second robber entered and ran away with the till while his accomplice brandished the knife at the shop workers, the court heard.

Both robbers were arrested a short while later at an address in Hood Street, with the till, which had contained about £105, and charity boxes found discarded in the garden.

In a statement read to the court, the woman from Pets at Home said she felt as though she were reliving the "fear, stress and trauma" of the robbery every time she went to work and she was now scared of anyone coming into the shop.

One of the pizza shop staff said it was the first such incident he had experienced in 20 years working there and he no longer felt safe.

In mitigation, the court heard Hodgson had been trying to get his life on track after being released from prison in September but ended up homeless after falling out with his father, with whom he was living in Middlesbrough, over Hodgson having to get up early to go to work as a roofer in Hartlepool.

Recorder Samuel Rippon said Hodgson had shown a pattern of offending of "escalating seriousness" with "no sign of stopping".

Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.