A Caithness man decided to rob his local post office after suffering money problems, Wick Sheriff court heard yesterday.
But Eric Edmondson, 57, lost his nerve when an assistant pressed the alarm button and left empty-handed.
He appeared in court yesterday and admitted attempting to rob the sub-post office in Wick.
The 57-year-old entered the office in the town’s Smith Terrace, around 11am on November 8 last year, carrying a black holdall and a jacket wrapped round his left hand giving the impression of a concealed weapon.
He presented the holdall to the two assistants and ordered them to “fill it”.
David Barclay, prosecuting, said that the assistants refused to comply with the order and one of them pressed the alarm button.
Mr Barclay continued: “The accused immediately realised that there was nothing to be gained from his endeavour and fled from the office.”
The police were contacted and with the help of witness descriptions circulated on social media tracked Edmondson down.
He told police that he had been without benefit payments for a month and it had prompted him to consider the robbery after pondering on it during “a sleepless night”.
Mr Barclay said that Edmondson, of 2 Caberfeidh Court, Wick, told officers he was desperate for money and had been “getting by” only with charity food parcels handouts.
He added that one of the assistants was said to have been pregnant at the time and had experienced “severe stress and trauma” as a result of the incident.
Sheriff Andrew Berry continued the case until September 16 for a background report and warned Edmondson, who has a record, that such a serious crime could well attract a prison sentence. He has since secured employment as a bus driver.
