York shoplifter threatened guard with blood-filled syringe

Undercover police stepped in to save the shop employee from David Vaughan Cooper very early on January 18 at Tesco’s Askham Bar 24-hour superstore, said prosecutor Simon Ostler at York Crown Court.

The security guard had spotted the shoplifter stealing alcohol on CCTV and stopped him as he left the store. Then Cooper pulled out the blood-filled syringe and said: “If you come any nearer, I will stab you with this.”

“I haven’t done anything like that before,” Cooper told the Recorder of York, Judge Stephen Ashurst. “It was a stupid thing. It was desperation.”

Cooper, 44, of Gargrave House, Birstwith Drive, Acomb, pleaded guilty to theft and carrying an offensive weapon.

He was due to be sentenced in May, but Judge Jim Spencer QC deferred sentence then for six months so he could prove that he could go straight.

When he returned to court, Judge Ashurst was so impressed with progress reports from York drug agencies about Cooper’s progress in kicking his drug habit, he gave him a community order with six months’ supervision. He also heard that Cooper had stayed out of trouble since May.

Defence barrister Suzanne Smales said Cooper had cut his amphetamine intake by 50 per cent since June, which had not been easy for him.

Mr Ostler said the security guard was suspicious of Cooper when he saw him enter the shop just after midnight on January 18 and kept him under surveillance. He watched as the shoplifter put bottles from the alcohol aisle under his jacket and left the shop without paying for them.

The guard was “extremely frightened” by the syringe threat.

The undercover police happened to be in the store at the time and seeing what Cooper was doing, intervened and arrested him. The syringe fell to the ground. Cooper had two bottles of Jack Daniels and another bottle on him.

The offences breached a conditional discharge imposed in October 2007 for shoplifting at Morrison’s store in Front Street, Acomb.