A north-east man carried out two raids on petrol stations by covering his face and brandishing a knife at members of staff.
Ciaran Anderson was with a group of friends in Fraserburgh when he suggested carrying out the first robbery.
He then took a knife from a kitchen and put on a friend’s jumper before making his way across to the forecourt on Watermill Road in the early hours of May 10 last year.
There he took out the blade and ordered the member of staff to hand over money and cigarettes.
The 20-year-old made-off with £200 and cigarettes but was seen by witnesses as he headed back into the block of flats he’d come from.
He was detained by police a short time later and appeared in Peterhead Sheriff Court the following day.
Anderson was given bail but that only presented him with the opportunity to strike again, in a similar fashion, six months later.
This time he was out with a group of friends in Ellon when he decided to stage a robbery – once again borrowing their clothes.
The court heard he’d covered his face and stormed into the Ythan Service Station on November 12 to demand money, cigarettes and alcohol.
He fled empty handed, however, when the female member of staff on duty refused to hand anything over and informed him she had already sounded the alarm.
Police later saw two of his friends wearing the items of clothing he’d garbed himself in during the incident.
They were detained on suspicion of carrying out the robbery but were later released when it became clear Anderson was behind the failed raid.
Anderson, of George Garden Avenue in Peterhead, confessed to the robbery and attempted robbery during an earlier appearance at Aberdeen Sheriff Court and returned there yesterday for sentencing.
That was delayed, however, when solicitor George Mathers said there were a number of troubling incidents in his client’s childhood and called for a report from a clinical psychological expert.
He said: “To do the same thing again with it captured on CCTV suggests something is not right.”
Sheriff Jack Brown granted the request and ordered Anderson to return to court in June.
