Customer held at gunpoint as student robs the same Bradford bank twice in two months to pay off debt

The impact of Ahmad Junaid’s offences was so severe that the bank, which he raided twice in two months, was closed permanently for the safety of customers and staff.

Bradford Crown Court heard Junaid, 18, first robbed the NatWest bank in of Wibsey, Bradford, on October 30 last year.

Camillie Moorland, for the prosecution, said he and one other man, who has not been found, entered wearing balaclavas.

They placed two plastic sports bags on the counter, with the unknown man hitting a hammer on the glass divider screen and saying: “Give me the money.”

As the pair became agitated, Junaid had pulled a gun from his pocket, a BB gun, and pointed it at a customer’s head.

Ms Moorland said: “She said: ‘Please don’t shoot me’, she genuinely thought she was going to be shot.”

In her victim statement the customer said this was the second robbery she had witnessed but that this was the most frightening experience of her life. She did not know the gun was an imitation.

The pair got away with £1,730, which included takings from the bank and the petrified woman’s bag.

They left to an awaiting car and sped away from the scene.

In the second target, just two months later on December 12, Junaid had entered the bank alone wearing a helmet on his head, brandishing what appeared to be a sawn-off shotgun.

He said: “Give me your ****ing money.”

On this occasion both tellers ran into the back room and pressed the panic button. Junaid went away with nothing.

Juniad, from Bradford, was identified from fingerprints found on a yellow sports bag left behind in the first bank job, and the helmet found in an abandoned car from the second.

He had pleaded guilty to the first robbery and the second attempted robbery and firearms offences before the case was due to go to trial.

In mitigation, Ian Howard said: “He is not a career criminal.

“The only possible explanation was that some pressure was brought to bear with him causing damage to a sports car, with an individual expecting recompense for that damage to meet a debt.”

In jailing Junaid, Judge Colin Burn spoke of the impact his offending had had on the community, which had lost its local bank branch amid fears for customer and staff safety.

The judge said: “You’re actions has caused serious detriment to the bank in Wibsey and the community who were serviced by this bank.”

He said if he had been older he could have been facing 15 years in prison.

One woman in the public gallery wailed loudly as Junaid, wearing jeans and a white shirt, was taken away.