Barmaid jailed for role in Shropshire pub heist is freed after landlord 'unhappy' with sentence
A woman jailed for her role in a "carefully planned" pub heist has been freed from prison after the landlord revealed he was "unhappy" about her sentence.
Kim Troy sobbed and gasped "thank you" as Sir John Griffith-Williams overturned her 32-month sentence, substituting a two-year suspended term at London's Appeal Court.
Troy, 28, was a trusted barmaid at The Talbot, in Dawley, Telford, when her boyfriend, Russell Greenwood, hatched a plot to snatch the pub's takings.
Greenwood pressured the reluctant Troy to tip him off when the pub was at its quietest, which she did with a series of late-night texts.
Her boyfriend and a teenage accomplice burst in around midnight, clad in masks and with one of them bearing a large knife.
The raiders carried out an "elaborate charade" in which they forced the supposedly innocent Troy to bag up the pub's takings - which came to over £1,000.
Troy, of Woodhouse Lane, Horsehay, Telford, pleaded guilty to robbery at Shrewsbury Crown Court and was jailed in August last year.
Greenwood, the raid's mastermind, received a total 52-month sentence, while the youth was handed a two-year rehabilitation order.
Troy challenged her punishment at London's Appeal Court and watched the court hearing in a clearly overwrought state via a live video link from prison.
Sir John Griffith Williams described her case as "exceptional and highly unusual".
She was a woman of previous unblemished reputation who had fallen under her boyfriend's "malign influence", he said.
On top of that, The Talbot's landlord, Jeff Windsor, had written to the court about the sentence passed on Troy.
Mr Windsor said she had "lost everything" and he was "100 per cent convinced she wouldn't have committed any crime if not for being pressured by Russell Greenwood".
Mr Windsor said he had always found her a "sober and trustworthy person" and he was "unhappy" about the impact her sentence would have.
Sir John, sitting with Lord Justice Elias and Mr Justice Spencer, termed Troy "vulnerable" and said her offence was "completely out of character".
He replaced Troy's jail term with a suspended prison sentence.
