A MAN stole a Mazda and rammed it into the front of a Poole convenience store before throwing bottles of whiskey at the owner.

Michael William Legg has now been jailed for more than three years after the raid at Premier Express, which happened just after midnight on Monday, October 28 last year.

Legg, who is 35 and of no fixed abode, took the car – a grey Mazda estate – from outside a home in Blandford Road sometime between 11.10pm and 11.40pm the previous night.

He drove the car to Vicarage Road. When he reached Premier Express at 12.02am, he drove the vehicle at the shop, using it as a battering ram to force entry.

The defendant got out of the car and began to grab bottles of whiskey from the shelves. However, he was disturbed by the owner of the store, Mr Unal.

Legg began to throw the bottles of whiskey at the victim. As he tried to leave, he got into a row with Mr Unal and punched him a number of times to the side of the face.

The victim suffered an injury to his eye socket.

The defendant left the Mazda at the scene and ran towards Hiley Road.

Police quickly attended, and found a rucksack in the car that contained an ID card, a bank card and a mobile phone. All of the items belonged to Legg.

He was arrested on Tuesday, October 29.

This week, Legg appeared at Bournemouth Crown Court for sentence after admitting robbery, burglary, assault, driving while disqualified and driving without third party insurance.

He also asked for a further eight burglary offences to be taken into consideration. These offences occurred in September and October 2019 in the Poole and Purbeck areas.

At the conclusion of the hearing, he was sentenced to a total of three years and four months in prison.

Detective Constable Christian Bryant, of Dorset Police’s Priority Crime Team, said: “This was a frightening incident for the victim that caused a significant impact to a local business.

“We will do everything we can to bring offenders like Legg before the court."