- Mushtaq Ahmed and, inset, Ross Hopkins.
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A SHOP owner has described the eerie calmness of an armed robber who demanded cash and then left empty-handed, before terrorising a female member of staff at a nearby supermarket.Mushtaq Ahmed said he was about to lock up his Lifestyle Express store in Waunarlwydd on the night of Sunday, September 27, when a hooded man with dark glasses appeared.
The man was Ross Michael Hopkins, who has been sent down for seven years for robbery and possessing a firearm.
Mr Ahmed said: "He had a gun in his right hand and a carrier bag in his left. I could not make out what he looked like.
Mr Ahmed said he repeated his question to the robber, and then became angry — producing a baseball bat from behind the counter to scare him away.
Mr Ahmed continued: "He said, 'I'm going to take that off you'. I was in two minds if I should hit him, and how did I stand with the law.
"He was not shouting or swearing. He was very calm."
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The 52-year-old said he then told Hopkins that he had pressed a panic button behind the counter and that police would arrive imminently.
"He stood there calmly for a few seconds, and then walked out of the shop.
"I have been here for 23 years, and this has never happened before. I was in a bit of a daze."
Ross Hopkins held up two shops in Waunarlwydd with a handgun
Mr Ahmed, who lives above the shop, said he had been reluctant to hand over any money because it was his business and his takings.
He said he felt the jail sentence was probably about right as it had to act as a deterrent.
Although it later emerged that Hopkins was wielding a replica gun, Mr Ahmed said he did not know that at the time.
"I have never even seen a real gun," he added.
Hopkins, former of Ravenhill but now of Cil-y-Coed in Waunarlwydd, had previously pleaded guilty to robbery, attempted robbery and to two counts of possessing a firearm while committing an offence when he appeared in the dock of Swansea Crown Court yesterday.
John Lloyd, prosecuting, said the 34-year-old — wearing sunglasses and a hooded with the hood up in an attempt to hide his identity — walked into the Lifestyle store at around 8.50pm and produced an imitation handgun from his pocket, which he pointed at Mr Ahmed before demanding money.
When the shopkeeper refused to hand-over money Hopkins walked the short-distance to CK.
When he arrived at the shop one of the assistants was just finishing a cigarette break — the defendant held the shop door open for her as they entered, and he then waited until she had resumed her position behind the till before approaching and producing the gun and making threats
The frightened shop assistant handed over some £600 from the till, and Hopkins he walked out
The following day police issued a CCTV image of the suspect to the media — he was identified after the picture appeared on social media site Facebook.
In his police interview he said he had gone out with the imitation gun that night because an unnamed person to whom he owed a large drug debt had threatened to firebomb his mother's house unless he paid.
The court heard Hopkins has a previous conviction for robbery from 2009 when he was sent down for 54 months after he and another man robbed the Domino Pizza takeaway in Hafod — they forced a member of staff who was locking up the premises at the end of the day to open the safe before taking cash and assaulting their victim.
The court also heard details of the defendants background - he had joined the Army after leaving school but left after a short period of service following the suicide of this father. He than began to "drift" and and began to associate with drug users, which led to him becoming an addict. Then in 2007 Hopkins' younger brother took his own life, something which caused Hopkins to despair, and he became "an implacable" user of heroin.
Judge Huw Davies QC sentenced Hopkins to five years for each robbery charge to run concurrently, and two years for years for the possession charge to run concurrently with each other but consecutively to the first.
Read more: http://www.southwales-eveningpost.co.uk/Seven-years-jail-armed-robber-held-shops-night/story-28036572-detail/story.html#ixzz3pOe3rNpg
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