A SHOP owner has said a man who robbed his heavily pregnant store assistant should have been sent to prison.

Shane Bishop, of St Helen’s Mews, Abingdon, has avoided jail after he admitted targeting a Spar store on March 31 this year.

The 30-year-old was drunk and had taken crack cocaine when he pushed Clara Da Silva, who was eight-months pregnant, three times and tried to steal cash from the till.

After a struggle he grabbed £160, but was stopped from escaping by a member of the public, Gary Monaghan, who wrestled him to the ground.

Yesterday a judge handed serial offender Bishop a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, so he could receive drug and alcohol treatment.

But the owner of the shop, in High Street, Abingdon, said the sentence sent “the wrong message” to anyone thinking about robbing a convenience store.

Paul Johnson said: “Everyone knows the difference between right and wrong, it’s a fundamental thing.

“It’s very difficult if you’ve never had an addiction, to put yourself into someone else’s mind, but I think it sends the wrong message. I think people should go to prison when they do things like this.

“People think they can do whatever they want and there will be no consequences.

“And it’s not much of a deterrent if they only get suspended sentences.”

Ms Da Silva’s baby is due in two weeks’ time.

Jane Malcolm, defending, said the crime was not a “sophisticated” robbery and had been done on the spur of the moment.

She said: “This was a shop he would visit frequently, so there was a very high chance of being recognised.

“It is clearly something that wasn't very well thought out and he was tackled to the floor and arrested at the scene.

“He didn't realise that the shop assistant was pregnant and the fact that she was makes him feel even worse about what he did.

“He is so ashamed that he can’t even walk past that shop now."

She said Bishop had started taking drugs and drinking more heavily after his father died in 2010.

Judge Gordon Risius said the member of the public who stopped Bishop should receive a commendation and £250.

He told Bishop: “This woman was in an advanced stage of pregnancy at the time and not surprisingly has been greatly affected by the experience.

“Happily for her and the shop’s owner, a public-spirited customer saw what was happening and detained you until the police arrived. But I do believe you are interested in sorting your life out.

“Shopkeepers are entitled to look to the courts for protection from people like you.”

He also handed Bishop 12-months’ supervision and six-months of drug and alcohol treatment.