Jury goes out in case of man accused of raiding Walsall travel agent
The jury in the case of a man accused of robbery at a travel agent in Walsall has been sent out to consider their verdict.
Paul Gallagher, aged 49, is accused of being one of two men who raided Bloxwich Co-op in Green Lane on Friday October 28, 2022, taking £11,708.36 in Euros, US Dollars and Norwegian, Croatian and Thai currency.
In his final submission for the defendant, defence counsel Niall Skinner said the only thing he would admit to was being in Bloxwich to pick up 25 cannabis plants which he had brought a few days before from the same area.
He said: "This is a working man who has money and his own means, he has two accounts and a house. The only thing he is guilty of and he admits to, is buying cannabis which people can make their own judgment about given his age but it doesn't mean he carried out the robbery he is accused of."
Judge Neil Chawla, addressing the jury before he sent them out for deliberation said it was up to them to weigh up the evidence given what they had heard in a week long trial.
He said: "You have seen that the car that was registered to the defendant was the one seen two days before the incident which the prosecution and prior to and after it - the prosecution says this was a reconnaissance mission, the defence that he was in the area to by cannabis plants
"We know the plates on the Affinity car that was used in the raid were changed in the preceding day - he says he doesn't know why it was there and has no recollection of that happening. He also says he never used or visited the Co-Op store he is accused of robbing.
"There is also CCTV evidence of the defendant using a coin machine at a nearby Asda branch which deals in foreign currency and there is a search on his phone records relating to different currencies.
"But the defence says the Google search was made by his 11-year-old son who was due to go on a foreign trip imminently and that the defendant also has a lifelong interest in coins."
Earlier in the case, David Iles, prosecuting said the other masked robber in the case remains a mystery, that the travel agency was an 'easy target' and the one staff member on duty at the time had been left traumatised by the experience.
Gallagher, of Abbeydale Road, Northfield, Birmingham, denies robbery,
