A 46-year-old Maidstone man has been charged after an 86-year-old was threatened with a 4-inch knife in Swanley Asda car park and told to hand over his bank card and PIN.

A 46-year-old man from Maidstone has been charged with attempted robbery after an 86-year-old was threatened with a knife in the car park of Asda in Swanley. Kent Police announced the charge at 11.22am on Thursday 15 October. (Kent Police, Officers charge man with attempted robbery in Swanley)

The charge

Officers arrested the man on the evening of Tuesday 13 October, after the force’s appeal for information. He has been charged with attempted robbery. Kent Police says further charges of shoplifting and fraud have also been authorised against him.

He was due to appear at Medway Magistrates’ Court on Thursday 15 October.

A charge is not a finding of guilt. Because criminal proceedings are now active, we have removed the CCTV image the force released with its appeal on Tuesday, and we will not report anything beyond what is said in court or by the force.

What happened

The attempted robbery happened on Saturday 10 October, between 12.20pm and 12.30pm, in the Asda car park on London Road.

According to Kent Police, the pensioner was sitting in his car when a man approached. The force alleges the man:

  • grabbed his arm
  • held a 4-inch knife to his stomach
  • demanded his bank card and PIN number
  • demanded £500 from him

The victim pushed the man away and got out of his car. The offender then ran off.

The force has not said whether the victim was hurt.

What it means for residents

The force’s original appeal, which asked anyone who recognised a man in a CCTV image to call, has now been taken down. Kent Police has not asked for further witnesses since the charge.

Recorded crime for the district, month by month, is on our Sevenoaks crime figures page.

This story was first published on 13 October with the force’s CCTV appeal. It was updated on 15 October with the charge, and the CCTV image was removed.

Sources

Image: Asda in Swanley, photo by DS Pugh, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph and Wikimedia Commons.