Oswestry drug dealer guilty of Boozed-Up robbery
A convicted drug dealer and recovering heroin addict has been found guilty of robbing a shopkeeper of cash and cigarettes.
Carl Cowans was said to have carried out the raid at the Boozed-Up store in Salop Road, Oswestry, in November last year.
At Shrewsbury Crown Court a jury found him guilty of the robbery but cleared Cowans of a charge of being in possession of a knife.
Judge Peter Barrie adjourned sentence on 35-year-old Cowans until May 12 for reports and a victim impact statement from the shopkeeper and the defendant was remanded in custody.
Cowans, of Garth Owen, Newtown, had denied robbing Harkamal Dhillon and being in possession of a kitchen knife.
The jury heard that £450 in cash and some Lambert & Butler cigarettes were stolen from the off-licence on November 21 last year.
Minutes after the robbery Cowans was seen by police who were already at a flat in Chaucer Road where the defendant turned up 'soaking wet' and 'out of breath'.
Officers recovered the cash from Cowans wallet tucked into his waist band and a packet of cigarettes and he was arrested.
Mr Dhillion later picked out Cowans on a video identification parade.
Cowans that the shopkeeper had been confused when he identified him and it was a case of mistaken identity and he had only been in the off-licence on one previous occasion.
He suggested he had been with a girlfriend at a nearby 'crack house' at the time of the raid he had saved the cash recovered from his wallet by police.
Cowans claimed it was from work as a driver and a labourer and from 'grafting' - a slang for shoplifting - and not the robbery.
He admitted that he had an extensive criminal record which included convictions for conspiracy to supply drugs and shoplifting.
