Knife thug jailed after armed robbery foiled by hero Edinburgh shopkeeper

Terrence Tant left Bimal Kumar with a serious wound to his thumb after he fought back against the bungling thief.

An armed robber who failed to escape with cash after a shopkeeper tried to disarm him has been jailed for four years.

Terrence Tant wounded Bimal Kumar during a struggle with the large knife he had wielded to menace victims in the terror raid on a family-run store in Edinburgh.

Bimal, 57, put himself between Tant and his frightened wife Kiran Bala, 54, during the robbery.

Members of the public went to the aid of Bimal and Tant was overpowered and restrained.

The £200 he took in the robbery was recovered but the shopkeeper sustained a serious wound to a thumb which required 19 stitches.

At the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday, judge Lord Pentland told Tant, 41, that it must have been “a terrifying incident” for the victims.

He noted that Bimal continued to have pain from the injury he suffered and that the continuing psychological effects of the attack on his wife have been substantial.

He told Tant, a former council social care assistant, that he would have been jailed for six years but for his early guilty pleas.

Lord Pentland said: “The court has a responsibility to extend such protection as it can to those who work in shops against individuals such as you.”

Tant, formerly of Dumbryden Gardens in Edinburgh, earlier admitted the assault and robbery at the One Stop Grocer and Mini Market at the city’s Saughton Mains Gardens on December 27 in a racially aggravated offence.

He also pled guilty to possession of the knife.

Defence solicitor advocate Simon Collins said Tant found himself with no money after becoming jobless.

He added: “When he armed himself with this knife, he did not intend to use it to injure anyone.”