A HIGH court judge has praised the bravery of post office staff in Dunfermline moments after watching a video of them disarming an armed robber.

Lord Scott made the comments after seeing footage of Robert Danskin’s failed bid to rob the Nisa store on Abbey View in June.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard how the 36-year-old crook walked into the shop wearing a balaclava and brandishing a weapon described in court by prosecutor Anna Chisholm as a “realistic” imitation gun.

She also said it looked “indistinguishable” from a real gun.

Danskin demanded staff member Cheryl Gourlay fill a bag with money before jumping over a counter and assaulting her by seizing her body.

But brave Cheryl put herself in front of the till and refused to comply with his requests.

Ms Chisholm said: “Cheryl Gourlay told him he wasn’t getting money.”

She then shouted to her colleagues who came rushing to her help. Court staff then played the minute long incident which had been captured on CCTV cameras.

Lord Scott saw colleagues run over to the counter - one staff member wrestled the pistol out of Danskin’s hand whilst punching him.

His colleagues pulled his balaclava off his head, wrestled him to the ground and restrained him there until the police arrived to arrest him.

The court heard that Danskin had a conviction for a similar offence in 2007. This prompted Lord Scott to defer sentence.

He said: “I am inclined to call for reports. Notwithstanding the real bravery of a number of individuals who intervened, this must have been a terrifying incident in which no one other than the accused was aware that this wasn’t a real firearm.”

The story emerged after Danskin, also of Dunfermline, pleaded guilty to assaulting Cheryl Gourlay whilst wearing a mask on his face.

The charge to which he admitted states that he acted aggressively whilst demanding money and brandishing an imitation firearm at her.

He also admitted to seizing and pulling her on the body whilst attempting to rob her of money.

Footage of the failed raid went viral on X earlier this year.

CCTV showed Danskin climbing over the post office counter in an alleged attempt to take the contents of the till.

Social media users named the man who disarmed Danskin as 'Bob'. They witnessed him punching Danskin on the head before wrestling the gun from him with the help of other staff.

More than 27,000 people have liked and shared messages of support beneath the video of the incident, which has been viewed over two million times on X.

Members of the community in Dunfermline then launched a fundraiser to thank the post office staff for putting “their lives at risk” to disarm the robber and “save” shoppers.

On Wednesday, Ms Chisholm said that following his arrest, Danskin told officers that he wasn’t a “bad person”.

She said that he was in debt to drug dealers and was concerned that he and his partner were going to be harmed by them.

She added: “He said ‘Me and my girlfriend have a £1,000 crack debt. In a weird way I wanted to get caught so I could to jail and be safe there'.”

Ms Chisholm also told the court that police officers examined the firearm and found that it was an Airsoft - a game similar to paintball - gun.

It had originally been covered in blue paint to keep it in line with firearms legislation.

She added: “But it has been removed at some point. This gives it the look of a realistic imitation firearm.”

Ms Chisholm also said that it in appearance it looked “indistinguishable” from a “real firearm”.

Lord Scott told Danskin that he had committed a “terrifying offence.”

He will be sentenced at the High Court in Glasgow on November 7.