Woman robber dressed as man avoided justice for seven years

Robber Alison Lee dressed up as a man before carrying out armed raids on shops in Barnsley – and escaped justice for seven years. She was finally caught out when police conducted a cold case review of the offenses, using recent scientific technology to match her to a palm print she left behind and a fingerprint on an imitation gun recovered by police after the raids in 2004.

Lee wore a deerstalker hat and used a false mustache for the raids at shops in Barnsley. It took a jury at Sheffield Crown Court only half an hour to decide that she was responsible. Lee, 42, was convicted of two offenses of attempted robbery and another two offenses of possessing an imitation firearm. She denied the charges but is now facing a jail sentence.

The court heard she tried to rob tills at the One Stop store in Kendray, Barnsley, and a few minutes later at the Co-op supermarket in Hoyland, but on each occasion fled empty-handed. Witnesses gave various descriptions of the would-be robber and all believed it was a man.

The court heard that in 2004 the police did not have the technology to match Lee’s prints but a 2010 cold case review uncovered a match on a new database. Lee had been arrested and fingerprinted in 2009 for an unrelated offense which was later dropped. Her palm print on the £10 note and a fingerprint from the gun magazine were matched.