A bank robber has been jailed after he used a bottle of Febreze to threaten staff.

After searching ‘how to rob a bank’ on Google, Simon Jones, 38, took his girlfriend’s car without her knowledge while she was out walking the dog to carry out the robbery.

Wearing a mask, gloves and dark glasses he stood in a queue for 15 minutes, waiting patiently to threaten staff.

Simon Jones queued up to carry out a bank robbery at a branch of Natwest

He has now been jailed for 40 months for the bank robbery

When he got to the front he told the cashier that he had acid in the Febreze bottle and he wasn’t afraid to use it.


She handed over £370 along with a decoy £1,000 bundle that contained a tracking device.

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He then fled in his girlfriend’s car but the raid was so amateur he was arrested just a few hours later.



Prosecutor Jane Waugh said: ‘One customer said he “didn’t look quite right” and the police were called because of their suspicions.

‘The manager approached the defendant as he waited in the queue and asked if she could help him. He replied “no”.

The manager was concerned he might have had a skin condition and went to speak to him to find out if everything was alright.

Jones took his girlfriend’s car without her knowing while she was walking her dog

‘She trod a careful line between upsetting someone who might have had to wear such things to protect their skin or have a nasty motive for wearing such a disguise.’

Staff affected by the robbery had to take time off work to deal with the mental health issues that arose.

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One of the bank workers said: ‘I felt like I was in a parallel universe where this was not happening to me. There were children in the bank in pushchairs, other staff and numerous customers. We all could have been hurt by the actions of this person.’

He was jailed for 40 months following the raid at a branch of Natwest in Bishop Auckland, County Durham.

The Febreze bottle contained Febreze, not acid.