A ROBBER developed a conscience when his victim told him he was a serviceman and promptly returned some of the cash.
Lincoln McLean, 20, approached submariner Dennis Gibbons as he was drawing money from a cashpoint machine at a service station in the early hours of the money and pretending to be armed with a knife, told him: “Give me your money now or I’ll stab you.”
Prosecutor Nicholas Rowland told Southampton Crown Court the men then exchanged words before McLean gave him back some of the £60 the submariner had handed over.
McLean, of Lumpy Lane, Northam, admitted robbery and was jailed for two years.
In mitigation, Jeremy Barton said McLean had been drinking after attending his grandfather’s funeral and had gone to the service station to buy cigarettes when he saw the submariner.
“The complainant told him, ‘I fight for my country and this is the way you treat me?’ That struck a chord with him because his grandfather was an ex-serviceman.”
Mr Barton added: “Courts are used to sob stories but this is sincere and real. There is no other reason why he handed the money back."
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