Two young men who engaged in a terrifying but amateur armed raid on a shop in a small Westmeath town, could face three months behind bars.
Because they wanted money to go to Oxegen, they put on masks and entered the small shop with a kitchen knife with an eight inch blade, and an imitation firearm.
The younger man who had just completed his Leaving Cert, was armed with the kitchen knife demanded that the tills be opened and the pair got away with €950.
The court heard how the woman initially thought it was a joke, because she recognised the younger of the two men but when he yelled “Open the f***ing till!” she became afraid.
He was immediately recognisable from CCTV images. His parents knew nothing of the incident and his mother continued to shop in the store “blissfully unaware” of what had happened.
Other locals had seen them entering the church grounds nearby and putting on their masks.
