Knife-wielding South Yorkshire robber is jailed after he threatened to kill a shop assistant in Doncaster

A masked armed robber with a knife has been put behind bars after he threatened to kill a female shop assistant.
By Jon Cooper
Published 22nd Apr 2022, 10:45 GMT
Updated 24th Apr 2022, 15:51 GMT
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Sheffield Crown Court heard on April 19 how Mark Hamilton, aged 38, of High Hazel Road, Moorends, Doncaster, struck at Doncaster Food and Wine store, on Beckett Road, and left the shop assistant frightened for her life.

Neil Coxon, prosecuting, said: “She began to feel nervous because the defendant was reaching inside his jacket pocket. The defendant then pulled out from inside his jacket pocket a knife and shouted out towards the shop assistant, ‘Give me the money, give me the money’.

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"The defendant was stood close to the till and he leaned forward towards the complainant and opened the till and the defendant shouted again, ‘Give me the money - I will kill you, I will kill you’. The complainant described being scared for her life.”

Pictured is an image released during a witness appeal by South Yorkshire Police of the armed robber who struck at the Doncaster Food and Wine store, on Beckett Road, Doncaster, on Decenber 14, 2021, before he subsequently gave himself up and was jailed.Pictured is an image released during a witness appeal by South Yorkshire Police of the armed robber who struck at the Doncaster Food and Wine store, on Beckett Road, Doncaster, on Decenber 14, 2021, before he subsequently gave himself up and was jailed.
Pictured is an image released during a witness appeal by South Yorkshire Police of the armed robber who struck at the Doncaster Food and Wine store, on Beckett Road, Doncaster, on Decenber 14, 2021, before he subsequently gave himself up and was jailed.

Mr Coxon added that Hamilton took notes and coins and placed them in a carrier bag and left the store with what was believed to have been £489 in cash.

South Yorkshire Police circulated CCTV footage of the defendant in a mask in an effort to track him down but the defendant gave himself up and told police he had never done anything like this before but he had needed the money.

The shop assistant stated: “This incident has affected my life so much that I had to go back to having my therapy for PTSD. I suffered with this previously but it has worsened since this happened.”

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Hamilton, who has previous convictions, pleaded guilty to robbery and to possessing a bladed or pointed article after the incident on December 14, 2021.

Dale Harris, defending, said Hamilton suffers with paranoid schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder and his offending is almost certainly down to his use of crack-cocaine.

Mr Harris added: "He was not thinking straight. He accepts he was entirely to blame for it but he was in the grips of a crack-cocaine addiction but lucky for him he has seen the back of that and he is free of drugs and is feeling much better as a result.”

The judge, Recorder Andrew Smith MBE, sentenced Hamilton to 36 months of custody and made him subject to a five-year restraining order to protect the shop assistant.