Oswestry heroin addict faked £5,000 pub cash robbery

Sophie Gibbons had swapped her shift at the Highwayman so she would be trusted with taking the money during the morning shift, Shrewsbury Crown Court was told.

The 22-year-old dialled 999 on her way to say she had been the victim of a robbery.

But the court heard Gibbons had in fact known the person who had taken the money and the whole thing had been set up.

Soon afterwards she admitted the story to police and told officers she had been threatened and pressured into taking part.

Gibbons, of Sandringham Avenue in Oswestry, was handed a 16-month suspended sentence after admitting to conspiracy to steal and doing an act tending and intending to pervert the course of justice.

The court heard that Gibbons had previously handed in her notice at the pub and had taken £5,058.95 from the venue on her last day on July 26 last year.

Mr Richard McConaghy, prosecuting, said: "Miss Gibbons made her trip to the bank and on her way she dialled 999. She alleged that she had been the victim of a robbery."

Mrs Debra White, for Gibbons, said: "The offences were committed some 17 months ago and she is a very different young woman now to the young woman that we was then.

"At the time she committed these offences she was addicted to heroin."

The court heard that the person she had been buying the drugs from was the same person whose idea it had been to steal the money.

Mrs White said he had an "unenviable record" with past offences including violence and drug-related offences, and Gibbons had felt pressured into the crime by him.

But since that point, the court heard Gibbons had "turned her life around".

Recorder Nigel Daly said: "This is an offence in breach of trust. The money was actually stolen and then you reported it to police as a robbery.

"In your favour a short period of time later you stopped the pretence and told the police what had happened, how it happened and who it involved."

He added that he was satisfied the plan had not been her idea, that she had been "subject to threats and intimidation".

He said: "It deserves enormous credit and that cannot be ignored by the court."

She was given a 12-month supervision order and will have to complete a seven-week residential programme at rehabilitation centre Willowdene Farm, in Chorley.

She was also ordered to do 120 hours of unpaid work.