Daring shopkeepers tackled a tooled-up thief as he attempted to steal the tills from their Keith convenience store.
Munish and Diane Tandon were in the flat above the Premier Store on Reidhaven Square when Graham Elrick broke in trying to steal their cash registers.
The couple confronted the intruder and eventually restrained him, even after he produced tools from his pockets and assaulted them.
Elrick, 38, appeared from custody at Inverness Sheriff Court to admit attempting to steal two tills as well as assaulting the shop owners – one of them to their injury.
He also admitted a charge of theft by housebreaking in relation to a nearby shop break-in two weeks earlier, where he had made off with a till containing around £100.
Fiscal depute Alison Young told the court that the first theft took place on December 6 of last year from the Keith Hardware Store on Mid Street.
She said the owner had secured the premises the previous evening but had returned to find a door panel smashed and the till and cash missing.
CCTV footage showed a man entering the store and stealing the till.
A nearby householder also caught Elrick on CCTV as he disposed of the empty till drawer in his garden.
Shop attack
Then on December 20 the Tandons closed and locked their shop at 7pm before heading up to their flat.
“Around 11.15pm they heard a thump,” Mrs Young told the court.
The owners checked their internal CCTV system and “viewed footage of a person in the locus, attempting to take the till off the counter”.
Mr Tandon then took a plastic sword or piece of pipe and went downstairs to confront the intruder, resulting in a struggle.
Mrs Tandon also ran downstairs where she “grabbed a shelf and hit the accused with it” before he produced a hammer and began to strike Mr Tandon.
Elrick was then disarmed, but he then produced a chisel from his pocket.
He was disarmed again but then he produced a screwdriver and “thrust it” towards Mr Tandon, causing a small puncture wound.
The couple managed to disarm him again and police soon arrived on the scene.
Scene was ‘smashed’ and ‘ransacked’
They found “the couple restraining the accused on the ground” in the shop, which appeared “ransacked” and “smashed”.
Mr Tandon suffered scratches, puncture wounds and bruising and attended Dr Gray’s Hospital, but did not require any medical treatment.
Elrick’s solicitor Robert Cruickshank told the court his client had expressed “regret and remorse” over his actions.
He said: “Predominantly he was trying to remove himself from the premises. He must take responsibility for what he has done.
Mr Cruickshank added: “Fortunately the injury was minor and superficial.”
He said Elrick suffered from anxiety and PTSD and had overcome previous difficulties with drugs and alcohol.
Sheriff Ian Cruicksank told Elrick: “On 6 December last year you broke into commercial premises – a shop – and stole a cash register and one hundred pounds in money.
“Two weeks later you broke into a second commercial premises in Keith – a shop.
“You attempted to steal two tills. Your plans were thwarted by the intervention of the shop owners, who were then assaulted.
“You have various previous convictions for assault and theft by housebreaking, and other crimes of dishonesty.
“The only way this matter can be dealt with is by the imposition of the custodial sentence.”
He jailed Elrick, whose address in court papers was given as being a prisoner in Inverness, for 36 months backdated to December 22 last year.
