Taser teenager fails to have sentence slashed
A teenager who blasted a shop assistant with a Taser during a terrifying attempted robbery has failed to get his three-year sentence reduced.
The 16-year-old from Wolverhampton delivered the stinging electric shock to Dilbar Shergill whilst trying to rob the store.
The attempted robbery happened at Spar in Aspen Way, Merridale, on December 30 last year.
The youth said he carried out the crime to pay off a £500 debt to a drug dealer who threatened him and his grandmother.
He was jailed at the city's crown court on February 6 after he admitted attempted robbery and having a disguised firearm.
Just before the shop closed at 11pm, the 16-year-old went in wearing a balaclava, Mr Justice Hickinbottom told London's Criminal Appeal Court.
He took a bottle of drink to the counter but, when one of the three young men serving in the shop opened the till, the teenager said 'wait there'.
He walked behind the counter, took out the Taser - which was in the from of a torch with two prong sparks at the end - and said 'put everything in the bag'.
Mr Shergill intervened and the teenager placed the Taser on his neck and shocked him. He wasn't seriously injured but suffered a 'short term nasty sensation'.
The teenager leapt over the counter and escaped with the Taser, but without stealing anything.
Police arrested him the next day - they found the discarded Taser and his trainer tread mark on the shop counter.
The boy's lawyers challenged his punishment for carrying the prohibited weapon.
They pointed to his age, his vulnerability to pressure from his drug dealer, his early guilty plea and the low voltage of the taser.
But Mr Justice Hickinbottom, sitting with Lady Justice Sharp and Judge Eleris Rees, said using the weapon was a 'grossly reckless thing to do'.
The judge said there were no 'exceptional circumstances' to justify a softer sentence.
