Bungling robber told to quit drugs

A ROBBER branded one of the “most incredibly inept and incompetent” a sheriff had come across has been ordered to stop taking drugs.

Oliver Nicholson wore a mask and wielded a hammer at a shop manageress, who told him: “Oliver, I know it’s you.”

The 21-year-old had earlier pleaded guilty to assaulting Ann-Marie Wilson in an RS McColl store in Main Street, Gorebridge, Midlothian, on January 30 last year and robbing her of money.

Ms Wilson was closing the shop when she looked up to see a man with a bobble hat pulled down over his face with eye holes cut in it. He was carrying a hammer. She recognised him as a regular customer.

After denying he was “Oliver”, Nicholson demanded the till be opened, took some money and fled.

Sheriff Deirdre MacNeill QC yesterday placed Nicholson of Buckie Road, Dalkeith, on a drug treatment order.