Telford landlord hails prison terms for pair over knife point robbery at pub

But Jeff Windsor, landlord of The Talbot in Dawley, said he feels for ex-employee Kim Troy, who has "lost everything" on being sent to prison last week along with robbery mastermind Russell Greenwood, who he says got off lightly.

Greenwood, 25, and Troy, 28, hatched a plan to rob the Telford pub where Troy worked as a barmaid on March 21, along with a 16-year-old who cannot be named for legal reasons.

The three carried out an elaborate plot where Greenwood and his younger accomplice burst in after closing time in masks made from leggings and pretended to threaten Troy, who had in fact been involved in planning the crime. They made off with about £1,000 from the pub.

Greenwood, of Arthurs Way, Woodside, Telford, was last week jailed for a total of 52 months and Troy, of Woodhouse Lane, Horsehay, 32 months.

The 16-year-old was made the subject of a two-year youth rehabilitation order. All three pleaded guilty to the robbery.

Mr Windsor said it had been a terrifying experience and at the time he was concerned for Troy, who is the mother of a young child, with no idea that she had helped set it all up and was play-acting as it happened.

The 61-year-old, who has run The Talbot since December, said: "She obviously has to be punished for the crime, which without her help wouldn't have gone ahead.

"She had the power to stop it all but she didn't – though I suppose if she was scared of Greenwood then she obviously wouldn't.

"I do think she got what she deserved in one sense, but it has affected her more than the others. She's lost everything, her personal licence, her home and her child.

"It is a shame as she was a good character. I feel for her, but she still shouldn't have done it."

He said he felt Greenwood, who at the time was in the grip of a £200-a-day crack cocaine addiction, was the mastermind behind the robbery, and had pressured both Troy and the 16-year-old into taking part in it.

"I had seen him a couple of times before but he wasn't welcome in our establishment because our customers knew what he was like," he said of Greenwood.

"I think he should have got more time. He's destroyed two lives, the young boy's and Kim's. If she hadn't been involved with him I'm 100 per cent sure it wouldn't have happened."

Greenwood accepted his role in persuading the others to take part when he was sentenced at Shrewsbury Crown Court by Recorder Peter Cooke on Thursday.

Mr Windsor said since the robbery he had become more security conscious.

"No one can access the upstairs area now, and when the last customer goes the door is locked straight away so nobody can enter," he said.