A masked robber has been locked up for his role in a terrifying raid on a shop, during which the owner was threatened with a machete and thousands of pounds of cigarettes were stolen.
Courtney Flannigan, aged 18, of Axe Head Road, in Briar Hill, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years detention at Northampton Crown Court this week, after he admitted his role in the armed raid on March 30, this year.
Flannigan, together with another man who wielded the machete, raided Charwood Food and Wine, in Westone, Northampton, taking cigarettes worth £8,200, mobile phone cards worth £900 as well as other items worth £200.
He was arrested after police found his fingerprint at the scene.
Sentencing him, Judge Lynn Tayton QC said: “Whenever there is a robbery using such a weapon the danger to the public can not be overstated.
“The shopkeeper was taken from behind the counter and held face down by another man.
“You took a bag that you had taken with you and filled it with cigarettes from behind the counter.”
Flannigan was sentenced to 30 months at a young offenders institute after pleading guilty to robbery.
He denied a second charge of possession of a bladed article, which will lie on file.