A boy, 15, put on a mask and tried to rob a couple at knife-point in their shop in order to pay off a drugs debt.
The boy who can’t be named for legal reasons was told by Flinshire magistartes that if he was older he would have been sent to prison for years.
The Deeside teenager was placed on a 12-month youth rehabilitation order with intensive supervision and surveillance for carrying out the attack at Mancot News and Booze on April 27.
He admitted attempted robbery and possessing a silver knife as an offensive weapon but denied that he had taken £20 during the incident.
'Give me the money from the till'
Jim Neary, prosecuting, told the court how he ran into the family-run store and shouted “give me the money from the till”.
He lunged towards the face of the young woman on duty with a knife and it ended up inches from her face.
She called to her partner who was making a cup of tea at the back of the shop as the intruder, still shouting, reached across and tried to grab £20 notes from the till.
The partner entered the shop and shouted at him to leave, the defendant pulled his hand away from the till but lunged at him with the knife.
A child entered the shop at that stage and the would-be robber left empty handed.
The police were called and he was arrested afterwards.
He made the 'biggest mistake in his life'
He initially denied being involved but in a third interview with detectives he confessed and told how he had been desperate following threats over the £75 cannabis debt.
The boy said that he and his family were being threatened over the drugs debt and he was desperate. The police are investigating those threats.
Phillip Lloyd Jones, defending, said his client had made the biggest mistake of his life.
He was still a very young boy, who had just turned 15 at the time of the incident and was clearly remorseful.
Mr Lloyd Jones said that it turned out that his client got embroiled in drugs, he had been a runner for a drugs dealer, had built up a £75 drugs debt, and had got himself into serious trouble at a very young age.
Victim did not want attacker jailed
Samanddeep Kaur, 23, said in her victim impact statement that she did not want the boy to be locked up did not want his life to be ruined.
But she was concerned that he felt it was OK to carry a weapon around and did not appear to understand that he could kill someone.
She said she had been informed that he had attempted to rob her in order to pay off a drugs debt and she was concerned that his need for drugs might cause him to reoffend in the future.
The court heard that the boy had never been in trouble before.
He was placed on a three month tagged curfew which stops him leaving the hisue between 8pm-9am and he is banned from entering the off-licence. The boy will also be sent on a 12 day programme dealing with the danger of knife crime and magistartes told him it would be a good idea if he wrote a letter of apology to his victim.
see-http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/boy-15-masked-knifepoint-raid-11478276
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