Armed Bandits Hold of Bookie Shop With Roll of Wall Paper

A terrified bookmaker shop manager handed over £2000 to what he thought were two armed gunmen.  Instead, it turns out the bandits held up the shop, not with a gun, but with a roll of wallpaper.  That wallpaper was concealed in a bag and made to look like a gun.

From the Edinburgh Evening News:

Both William Appleby and Darren Hunter admitted robbing manager Craig Winton in a Ladbrokes shop in the Crighton Place on Leith Walk, on July 4 and repentant Appleby offered to re-pay the money.

A judge watched CCTV footage of the few moments when Mr Winton was menaced with a long object hidden in a bag and handed over banknotes which Hunter stuffed into a plastic carrier bag.

Advocate depute Douglas Fairley QC, prosecuting noted; “The Crown understands that the item concealed in the bag may, in fact, have been a roll of wallpaper, though this would not have been obvious to Mr Winton.”

Despite the two men attempting to rob staff at the same bookmaker two weeks later, their not guilty plea was accepted by the court.

- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com