Prison for raid woman with false moustache

Alison Lee wore a deerstalker hat pulled down to hide her face, barely looked up and hardly spoke a word as she used a fake gun to raid two convenience stores.

Staff thought the robber was a “man with a black moustache” but the truth only emerged seven years later after recovering heroin addict Lee was linked to the crimes by new fingerprint technology.

Following a cold case review, police matched a palm print she left on a £10 note and a fingerprint on an imitation gun which were recovered at the two attempted robberies on October 12, 2004.

Lee, 42, was convicted last month of two offences of attempted robbery and another two offences of possessing an imitation firearm.

Jailing her, Mr Recorder Bernard Gateshill said: “These were serious offences. They were aggravated in part by your adoption of a disguise and they were planned offences as opposed to opportunistic.”

The court heard Lee was jailed for three years in 1993 for kidnap, use of an imitation firearm and making threats to kill and in the late 1990s had convictions for possessing heroin and crack cocaine.

Lee tried to rob tills at the One Stop store in Kendray, Barnsley and a few minutes later at the Co-op supermarket in nearby Hoyland but on each occasion fled. Lee was arrested in May, 2010 but made no comment to police. She denied donning a false moustache and denied that CCTV pictures taken during the robberies showed her and not a man.

Gordon Stables, prosecuting, told the jury that Lee was disguised “to throw people off the scent” but all the evidence pointed to her and she was wearing a “fake or false moustache.”

Lee, of Royston, Barnsley was said to be a recovering heroin addict at the time of the offences.

Her barrister Paul Reid said her offences were at the bottom scale of robbery and said she had made strenuous efforts to kick drugs and was on a methadone prescription course.