A ROBBER who struck at the same store three times in two days was jailed for four years as a judge warned: “Shopkeepers need to be protected by the courts.”

Judge Michael Taylor branded as “ludicrous” a recommendation by a probation worker that Damion Sheehan could be given a suspended prison sentence.

He told the 22-year-old: “Threatening an innocent and vulnerable member of staff carrying out a valuable public service can lead to only one outcome.”

Sheehan twice stole bottles of alcohol from Greenfield Convenience Store, in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, on June 18, Teesside Crown Court heard yesterday.

The following day, he returned and saw staff member Rakesh Desal had put his mugshots from closed-circuit television camera footage on the counter.

Sheehan challenged Mr Desal after going home to get a baseball bat, then demanded cigarettes and more alcohol, the court was told.

The shop worker said he was so frightened and convinced that he would be attacked that he handed over the goods, said Jacqueline Edwards, prosecuting.

Kate Dodds, mitigating, urged Judge Taylor to follow the recommendation in the probation report and said, since the incidents, Sheehan had moved away from “malign influences” in Newton Aycliffe to live with his uncle and aunt in Hartlepool. She told the court he had an apprenticeship at a gym, tackled his problems with alcohol and drugs, and had stayed out of trouble for nearly four months.

Sheehan, of Holt Street, Hartlepool, admitted two thefts and robbery, and was told by Judge Taylor: “Your justification for going back was that you were annoyed and embarrassed that your photograph was on the counter, annoyed and embarrassed that you had been caught out as a thief, and you thought you would get your own back on that innocent and frightened storekeeper.

“There can be no justification for what you did. A lengthy custodial sentence is the only way of dealing with you.”

Speaking afterwards, shop owner Amrit Khokharst said: “We have hardly had any trouble in the past, but when you are running a business you do have your ups and downs and this was a really ugly incident.”