A drug-crazed young man’s visit to a friend starte

A drug-crazed young man’s visit to a friend started a chaotic chain
of events which landed him in jail – and left an off-licencee
seriously injured.

Mark Gray, 22, said he was ‘as high as a kite’ when the friend
asked if he wanted to earn some money, gave him a sawn-off shotgun and
drove him to the local wine shop to rob it.

When the brave shopkeeper refused to hand over the cash, Gray
lashed out with the butt of the shotgun and savagely hit him to the
floor.

He then fled, chased by the shop’s guard dog, to the friend in a
waiting getaway car.

When arrested by the police three weeks later, he said he was
‘drugged up out of my head on Charlie’ (cocaine) and could only
remember scant details of the attack.

‘I didn’t know what I was doing.

I went in and demanded money.

They
wouldn’t give me any so I whacked him.

‘I had to hit him to get away.

His hands were around my neck.

‘There was a dog released by his wife which actually bit me.

‘
He took police to the friend’s address but the man had moved.

The
shotgun was never recovered.

Shopkeeper Mr Charan Chahal, 42, had to have 22 stitches to treat
the cuts he suffered.

In court, Gray, of Mary McCarthy House, Wythenshawe Road,
Dagenham, admitted attempting to rob the Happy Wines off-licence in
Whalebone Lane South, Dagenham, on January 30 this year.

He also pleaded guilty to having a firearm or imitation firearm
with intent and unlawful wounding for the attack on Mr Chahal.

Judge Leonard Gerber was told the defendant had convictions for
burglary but none for violence or robbery.

He told Gray: ‘You went into this off-licence and threatened the
owner.

‘When he bravely declined, you hit him about the head with the gun,
causing him to have 22 stitches.

‘You must realise this is a very serious offence.

‘Off-licences provide a valuable service to the community and they
are very vulnerable.

‘
Gray did not react as he was jailed for a total of five years.

ENDS
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