A ROBBER who took part in a vicious armed raid on a village sub-post office has been jailed for five years.

Passing sentence on Peter Baars, a judge said the "clearest possible message" had to go out that severe punishment would be meted out for such offences.

Maidstone Crown Court heard that the 37-year-old petty criminal played a secondary role outside Challock post office while his accomplice went in and terrified staff.

Martin Griffith, prosecuting, said it was not clear whether Baars, of Warren Street Road, Charing, near Ashford, was the getaway driver or lookout, because it was not known where the hooded robber went when he fled.

Mr Griffith said that at around 12.40pm on May 20 last year shop assistant Karen Poynton went outside for a cigarette at the store run by Andrew Puxted and his mother Angela.

Mr Puxted was talking to her when he heard the door bell and went back into the post office to find a man on his side of the counter.

"He had a pistol in one hand and a black bag in the other," said Mr Griffith. "Mr Puxted tried to grab hold of the bag, telling him to not even think about robbery.

"There was a struggle and he hit Mr Puxted with the pistol, once on the top of the head. The man fled and Mr Puxted hit the panic button. He sustained an injury to the top of his head and a sprained thumb."

Mr Griffith said Miss Poynton at first thought it was a joke but went back inside to find the aftermath of the raid.

Another staff member, Sharon Leeds, was cycling to work when she went past Baars’s car. The bonnet was up and Baars was standing by it with his mobile phone in his hand.

His girlfriend, Caroline Terry, was sitting in the passenger seat. He drove off as the accomplice ran from the post office.

Police checked film from CCTV cameras and Baars was seen going in shortly before the raid. Officers went to his home and found him and Miss Terry.

A ball bearing gun was seized and it was found to have blood on it that matched Mr Puxted’s DNA.

Mr Griffith said in view of Baars’s guilty plea to attempted robbery, it had been decided not to proceed against Miss Terry.

Baars, who had hobbled into the dock on crutches, had six months ago suffered an accident at work, when he fell out of a lorry.

Judge Patience said Baars’s problems could not in the end weigh with him when he considered what he had done.

"Those who work in sub-post officers are particularly vulnerable," he said. "Karen Poynton no longer has that same sense of security as she once did, due to what the unknown robber did that day."