Coffee shop worker who faked armed robbery escapes jail term (From Southend Standard)

Coffee shop worker who faked armed robbery escapes jail term

2:00pm Wednesday 13th February 2013 in Echo News By Chloe Chapman

A COFFEE shop worker who faked an armed robbery wept as a judge suspended her jail term.

Karla Revell, 22, stole £5,087 from Costa Coffee in Southend High Street after her former boyfriend came up with a plan to ease their financial problems.

Basildon Crown Court heard how Revell, of St Leonard’s Close, Grays, was cashing up the tills shortly after 6.30pm on November 6 last year when she phoned Jay Copping, 20, to inform him that she was the alone in the store.
 

Revell then let him in through the back door and the pair emptied cash from the safe into a bag.

She rang police claiming that an armed robber entered the coffee shop and threatened her at knife point.

After being overcome by guilt, Revell later admitted the truth to officers. She later pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to rob.

Recorder Charles Hollander gave her a nine month prison sentence, suspended for a year, after hearing how Copping, of Mapleford Sweep, Vange, talked her into committing the crime.

Addressing her at the sentencing hearing on Friday <8>, he said: “You had worked for Costa Coffee since you left school and worked your way up to a position of responsibility. You are, on the face of it, a girl from a respectable family and respectable background.

“What were you thinking when you threw it all away?”

Copping was sent to a young offenders institution for two years after a jury found him guilty of conspiracy to rob.

Turning to him, Recorder Hollander said: “I am entirely satisfied this was a plan you concocted and pressured Miss Revell to carry out. I think it’s extremely unlikely for her to think up a plan like that if you didn’t pressure her into it.

“Because of your actions Miss Revell will struggle to carry on with her career as she now has a conviction of a very serious nature.”