Thief armed with mobile phone wore clear plastic bag disguise

It turned out to be a clear case of theft after Jamie Neil donned a transparent plastic bag disguise before raiding the Co-op store at a petrol station in St Austell, Cornwall, armed with a mobile phone.

He was caught on the shop's CCTV and recognised two days later by an off-duty police officer as the offender who had been wearing the clear plastic bag at the time. St Austell detective constable Steve White branded the 41-year-old's disguise as "ridiculous".



Neil and his accomplice Gareth Tilley, were high on prescription medication and alcohol they had stolen earlier, when they threatened the shop's lone shop assistant Kim Clowes with Neil's mobile phone pretending it was an imitation gun. Tilley, 20, pointed the mobile phone at the 20-year-old worker and told her to give him all the money from the till.

The brave victim raised the alarm, stalled the offenders and wrestled with Neil after he jumped over the counter and started stealing alcohol. Neil head-butted the assistant in the face and then fled with a bottle of spirits along with Tilley before the pair went their separate ways. The robbery took place on September 27 last year. On Friday at Truro Crown Court, Neil, of Bethel, Cornwall, was sentenced to two years in jail.