A man is receiving hospital treatment after he armed himself with a kitchen knife and robbed a Clacton chemist.
Staff at Moss Chemists in the town's Old Road were left shocked and shaken after Andrew Goldsmith confronted them and demanded drugs, a court heard.
Goldsmith, 34, was known in the shop as he usually got his prescription sleeping tablets there.
But on September 16 last year, he walked into the shop with the knife and said he wanted more tablets, Chelmsford Crown Court heard.
"He was told where they were and was seen to put 24 boxes into his rucksack before leaving the shop, getting on a bicycle and riding off," Gerard Pounder, prosecuting, told the court.
Goldsmith was arrested on the doorstep of his home in Wellesley Road a short while later, Mr Pounder added.
Goldsmith was made the subject of a hospital order under the Mental Health Act after he admitted a charge of robbery.
Kate Davey, mitigating, said Goldsmith had been responding well to treatment at Runwell Hospital, near Wickford, Essex, and psychiatric reports recommended the treatment should continue.
At the time of the robbery, Goldsmith was thinking about killing himself and wanted more tablets as he did not have enough at home, Miss Davey said.
"He finds it hard to believe he acted in this manner. It was totally out of character," she added.
Published Tuesday, January 7, 2003
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