Robber threatened Wolverhampton shop staff with Aids infection

Daniel Falletta issued the chilling warning while pointing a hypodermic syringe at counter assistants in the One Stop Community Shop in Oxley Moor Road, Oxley, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.

He entered the store on January 14 with a scarf across his face, a hood pulled down over his head and blue plastic bags on his feet.

Falletta, 28, picked up two cans of beer, took them to the counter, produced the hypodermic and warned that the needle was dirty and would infect them with Aids.

He took £380 cash from the till and ordered the employees into the rear of the store where they were told to open the safe, revealed Mr Robert Edwards, prosecuting.

The defendant twice punched an engineer doing work at the shop, knocking him to the floor, and stealing his mobile phone after the man explained he could not open the safe because he was not a member of the store staff.

Falletta then announced it was a 'hostage situation' and bundled the employees into a toilet area, where he tried to tie up one of them.

While preparing to leave, he said they would be killed if the police were alerted, but this was ignored and officers were soon on the scene.

The culprit was caught after a chase through gardens before being detained by the occupants of a neighbouring house in which he tried to hide.

Miss Nicole Steers, defending, said he had mental health issues and continued: "There was no sophistication in the way he went about things.

"His actions were drug induced, he comes from a good family and had never done anything like it before."

Falletta from Valley Road, Cannock, who does not have HIV or Aids, pleaded guilty to two robberies – the cash and the mobile phone – and possession of an offensive weapon, the syringe.

He was jailed for a total of four years and nine months by Judge Marcus Tregilgas-Davey.