Jail for man who made two bizarre robbery attempts within minutes in Telford - pretending to be a policeman and having a foot race for £20
A man from Telford who tried to commit two streets robberies within minutes of each other threatened to “slit the throat” of one of his victims and “shank” the other.
Shaun Collier, aged 44, displayed bizarre behaviour when he tried to rob two men in separate incidents in the middle of Oakengates, Telford, including having a foot race with one and telling the other he was a policeman arresting him for viewing child sex abuse images.
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Shrewsbury Crown Court was told how at around 8.30pm on November 27 last year, a takeaway delivery driver was sitting in his car near The Old Fighting Cocks pub in Market Street, Oakengates when he saw two men.
One of them, Collier, approached his window and peered in.
He told the driver he needed money. The driver thought Collier must be homeless and offered him a couple of pounds.
Collier said that it wasn’t enough. He told the driver that the other man was from Latvia and was going to rob him.
“The defendant tried to make the conversation a joke before switching to being serious,” said Simon Parry, prosecuting.
Collier then claimed he was a police officer, and told the victim to put his hands out because he was being arrested “for viewing child porn”.
He then told the victim he did not want to rob him, but his Latvian friend did, and then lifted his top up to show a knife handle tucked into his waistband.
“What is stopping me from f***ing slitting your throat?” Collier asked the victim.
The victim told Collier that if he had money, he would give it to him. Collier said they should go to a cash machine, and tried to get into the back seat of the car before the victim closed it.
