Legal News

After a night time raid by masked men on a golf club the barmaid who was working got all sympathy from her managers for the terrible ordeal she said she had gone through. They even gave the barmaid a week off to recover from the break-in.
Samantha Mawtus, 27, a mother of two who was working at the prestigious Pine Ridge Golf Club was tied up by the masked men who then went on to ransack the golf club. But the when police conducted inquiries they found that one of the man who was arrested for the raid was the boyfriend of the barmaid.
The police now believe that the barmaid was hand in glove with the raiding pair though she denied any conspiracy to commit robbery at the Guildford Crown Court.
She had claimed that she was deceived by her boyfriend Mitchell Laidlaw, 25, from Liverpool, and his accomplice Kieran Beatty, 23, from Maidstone, Kent who have both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to rob the club on March 20 last year.
The prosecutor Nicola Merrick said that Miss Mawtus was in agreement with the two men to commit robbery at the club as she was often short of money.
Arguing, the prosecutor said that the defendant had swapped shifts with another staff member which let her work at the club in Camberley, Surrey, on the crucial night.
Her supervisor Simon Price, was in charge of the bar and allowed the barmaid to have a cigarette outside, leaving him alone.
But just minutes later a stranger came in through the same door wearing a balaclava and wielding a baseball bat.
Ms Merrick said the robber forced Mr Price to empty the till of £330 before forcing him to leave the building. Then he was dragged to a nearby wood, tied to tree and had his mouth taped.
But 20 minutes later he was able to free himself and run back to the club where he found Mawtus on the phone making a 999 call.
The jury heard that the defendant claimed that she been grabbed from behind by a man and her hands and legs were bound. The defendant said she had spent 30 minutes freeing herself before calling the police.
Mrs Merrick said that initially, the police assumed that Mawtus was a victim. But as their enquiries continued and her boyfriend was arrested, they became suspicious of her.
Jurors heard that Mawtus had made a phone call to Laidlaw a few minutes before the robbery had been committed. Actually she was in communication with the robbers when she was supposed to be tied up and terrified on the ground.
She was in fact helping her boyfriend and his accomplice commit what was a very nasty and frightening incident for Mr Price, said Ms Merrick. The trial continues.