Police appeal following armed robbery in Exeter

At around 9.20pm on Monday 5 December 2016 a man armed with a knife, estimated to be around 10” in length, entered the Spar shop on Magdalen Road in Exeter, where he threatened staff and took cash from the till.

The man then left the shop and ran along Magdalen Road, believed to be in the direction of the Mount Radford pub.

There were three members of staff in the shop at the time.  All are safe and no-one was injured.  No customers were in the store at the actual time of the incident.

The man is described as being white and around 30 years old and of slim build and between 5ft 8ins to 5ft 10ins tall.  He was wearing a camouflaged hooded jacket, black trousers, black gloves and a black scarf.

Detectives say the suspect entered the store previously, then left only to return some three minutes later and carry out the robbery.  The suspect was therefore in the vicinity for at least five minutes.

Detective Sergeant Richard Booker-Williamson said: “This was a brazen robbery and thankfully no-one was hurt, though as you can imagine, it was quite a shocking experience for the staff.  Detectives are following a number of lines of enquiry and we are asking the public to look at the CCTV and the still images to see if they recognise the suspect.  Do they have any idea who this is?  If so, we would like them to contact us.”

“We have a couple of CCTV stills of members of the public (see pictures) who were not involved in the incident but who were possibly close by around the time of the incident.  One is a woman who was the last customer in the store just prior to the incident and the other is a man who was just outside the store in a silver mobility scooter.  We’d like to either identify these people or for them to make contact to see if they are able to recall any detail that may help this investigation.”

Police are keen to hear from anyone who believes they know the identity of this man.  Anyone with relevant information is asked to email 101@dc.police.uk or call 101 quoting CR/086127/16.  Alternatively call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.