Man, 27, left Plymouth shopworker terrified in knifepoint robbery

A Plymouth man who admitted carrying out a knifepoint robbery of a shop on Mutley Plain to fund his cocaine habit has been put behind bars.

Josh Pimlott, of no fixed abode, appeared at Plymouth Crown Court yesterday - November 20 - to be sentenced after he pleaded guilty to two charges at a previous hearing.

Pimlott admitted entering the Premier Store on Mutley Plain at 12.50am on Wednesday, January 31 this year whereupon he pulled out a large kitchen knife and brandished it at two shop workers before demanding cash.

Prosecutor Herc Ashworth told the court Pimlott was under a suspended sentence order at the time, having been handed a 12 month jail term for 18 months in November 2022 for threatening a person on a bus with a knife.

He said the 27-year-old had walked into the shop wearing a large hoodie outfit and a mask over the lower part of his face before he pulled out a knife with a six inch blade.

He told shopkeepers "give me 40" as he held the knife out towards the faces of the workers who were huddled behind the counter. One of the shopkeepers opened the register and gave Pimlott £20 but again Pimlott demanded "another 20", still waving the knife aggressively at the men.

The court was told that Pimlott appeared to become frustrated and smashed his other hand on a chewing gum stand before one frightened shop worker urged him to "calm down" and said he would hand over another £10. Snatching it from the shopworker's hand, Pimlott then fled the store.

Mr Ashworth said Pimlott was arrested on February 6 and staff at the accommodation he was staying found the knife under his bed. During his police interview Pimlott offered a statement denying the offence before answering 'no comment' to all questions.

A very short victim impact statement was read out to the court by Mr Ashworth, with one of the shopkeepers saying that having a knife pointed at him made him feel "scared and nervous to continue to work in the shop".

Mr Ashworth said Pimlott's previous conviction was on board a bus in March 2022 where he was asked by another passenger to not vape. Pimlott responded by pulling out a Stanley knife and held it out towards the passenger.

The bus driver intervened and Pimlott refused to leave the bus until he got his knife back off the driver. However, Pimlott then punched the passenger "several times in the face" before being forced off the bus by the driver and another passenger.

Pimlott's advocate, Nick Lewin, said his client had made "enormous efforts" over the last nine months while in custody. He said that following his previous sentencing he completed 20 rehabilitation activity requirement days and his 200 hours unpaid work. He had also engaged with a number of agencies and attended "dozens" of appointments.

He noted the pre-sentence report, a psychologist's report and a psychiatrist's report as well as positive references handed to the court. He said that at the core of these reports was "deep seated neurodiversity issues and probably some deep seated mental health issues" which he claimed arose by a "lack of treatment of his neurodiversity issues".

He qualified this by confirming Pimlott's use of cocaine, "in part" used as a form of self medication. He said there were three letters from the prison which showed Pimlott had done the "absolute most any individual could do" while held in prison.

He said the letters painted a picture of a man who was keen and willing to work with his previously undiagnosed neurodiversity difficulties and said that in what he considered a unique circumstance Pimlott had been prescribed ADHD medication while in prison.

Mr Lewin went on to claim if his client had had this kind of treatment in his childhood then one would wonder if he would find himself in this situation now. He also remarked that by the time of his offence his family had become exasperated as to whether he could dig himself out of "this seemingly hopeless hole that he had got himself with regards to addiction".

However, with a number of family members supporting him in court and with the work he had done while inside, plus a better plan with regards to his health, ending his addiction to cocaine and treatment for ADHD, he was "now keen to turn a corner".

Mr Lewin noted that Pimlott's "complex PTSD" from an incident in his childhood, along with his undiagnosed ADHD and mental health difficulties led him to a drug addiction by means of injecting cocaine, and in turn the offence for which he was charged and pleaded guilty. He insisted Pimlott had "done as much as was conceivably possible to demonstrate a reformation of character" while in prison.

He said Pimlott had gone from injecting cocaine "on a daily basis" at the time of the offence to someone who was "a young man now on the cusp of becoming a thoroughly decent older man". He said that Pimlott was "unlikely" to trouble the courts again "as long as he stayed away from cocaine."

Judge Matthew Turner agreed that Pimlott had taken "significant strides" towards ending his addiction while in prison, noting that "it may come as a surprise to many members of the public who may not be familiar with the prison estate that it is not uncommon for drugs to be available, in fact all too frequently they are available within the prison estate and many prisoners continue to take drugs and consume them whilst they are incarcerated."

He said that Pimlott had taken "great strides" in choosing not to partake of drugs while in prison. He accepted that the background to the offence was his addiction to cocaine and that his addiction "could well be rooted" in his "potential complex PTSD" and "potential but still not diagnosed ADHD".

Judge Turner told Pimlott he had left staff at the shop "scared" and nervous of working in the shop.

He noted his previous conviction, his breach of his suspended sentence, his background of mental health difficulties including a 2016 diagnosis of bipolar disorder, later replaced with a diagnosis of a mental and behavioural disorder due to his use of cocaine. He also noted Pimlott's early guilty pleas and letters of remorse, as well as the three reports from doctors and the probation service.

Judge Turner remarked that Pimlott had a "long history" of cocaine addiction and he had read that this started or at least "considerably worsened at around the point in time that your father died when you were 18 years of age".

He reminded Pimlott there had also been "a period of intravenous heroin use" and his involvement in drug use had resulted in him suffering violence against him.

Taking into account the many mitigating and aggravating factors Judge Turner told Pimlott he would serve 30 months for the robbery, six months for the possession of a bladed article to run concurrently and six months for the breach of the suspended sentence to run consecutively, bringing the total to three years, of which he would serve half before being released on licence.

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