A HAVE-a-go shopkeeper foiled a knife-wielding raider . . . but ended up being arrested and charged by police. Stunned Mukesh Patel found himself on the wrong side of the law for using a CS gas canister in self-defence. The terrified 31-year-old shop owner of Percy Street, Farnworth, says he sprayed the robber in the face when he became worried his life was in danger. But yesterday he was fined £300 and ordered to pay £50 in costs by Bolton magistrates because of his actions.

Mr Patel earlier admitted possession of the gas cylinder as an offensive weapon and police obstruction.

The robbery took place at P&P Stores on Longcauseway, Farnworth, on Wednesday, July 29.

Mr Patel, who co-owns the store with Lilian Preston, was serving on his own when the raider, armed with a knife, came in.

Mr Patel told the BEN: "I felt my life was on the line. The knife must have been just two inches from my face.

"At first I just thought I would give him what he asked for, but then he became agitated and started demanding more and more until I really became frightened for my life. "It was only then that I used the canister. I felt it would have only taken a customer to have walked through the door to have made him lunge forward at me in panic. He was about 6ft 2in and basically I was terrified."

The drama began at about 9pm. Mr Patel recalled: "He called me out to the tin section of the shop and I went. But then he drew the knife on me and demanded my wallet.

"I explained I did not have it on me, and he said: 'Do not mess me around or I will put this (the knife) in you'." Mr Patel was led at knife point back to the counter when the raider demanded he handed over packets of cigarettes.

The robber then turned his attention to Mr Patel's mobile telephone and personal organiser. Mr Patel said: "He just kept getting more agitated, and that is when I got the can.

"I have had the can for about eight months and keep it behind the counter for self-protection mainly for the women who serve here. It cannot cause any permanent harm and it has never been used before."

As soon as Mr Patel had sprayed the nitrous-based liquid gas, the raider fled.

He added: "After the incident I was too shocked to think straight. I rang the police immediately, but it was only later in the evening, when I had calmed down a little, that I thought I ought to tell the police that I had sprayed the can and that it belonged to me. I was really shocked when they said they would have to arrest and charge me. Now, I have been left with a criminal record for a firearms offence, which sounds terrible.

"Yet, I was told that if I had possessed a weapon equal in size to the one I was threatened with, I would not have been prosecuted. In other words I would have been okay keeping a potentially fatal knife behind the counter.

"Yet the gas I had kept there was never going to kill anyone. I only used it at the point that I felt I was in danger of being stabbed." Mr Roger Allanson, defending Mr Patel, told the court yesterday: "It is a shame that he is here. It was a serious error of judgement." The magistrates were told that the robber had since died from a drugs overdose and so had not been convicted of the crime.

What do you think about this issue? Was it right that Mr Patel was prosecuted for his actions? Write to the Letters Editor, Bolton Evening News, Churchgate, Bolton, BL1 1DE.

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