Mum spent cash from pub robbery in JD Sports and McDonald's

Susan Palmer, 34, has already been given a community order for her part in assisting ex-partner Ashton Vann in the wake of the armed raid on The Duck on the Pond, South Newington, in May 2018.

And at Oxford Crown Court on Friday, a judge formally ordered that Palmer must pay back £1,766 under Proceeds of Crime Act rules.

The sum includes £1,445.37 in cash seized from the Banbury woman by police – and a further £321 estimated to be the value of clothes bought with money stolen from the pub.

Prosecutor Anne-Marie Critchley told the court that Palmer, who pleaded guilty to assisting an offender, was found in possession of cash, clothing and receipts amounting to more than £3,060.

In the wake of the terrifying robbery on The Duck on the Pond on May 25, 2018, the woman went on a shopping spree in Leicester and Banbury.

Receipts found by the police showed her spree included spending £435 at a JD Sports and more than £20 at McDonalds.

Judge Maria Lamb ruled that Palmer had benefitted from her offending to the tune of £3,060. There was £1,766.37 available from which compensation could be paid to the pub landlady who was left out of pocket.

If Palmer fails to pay, she must serve up to 25 days in prison in default. Judge Lamb said: “That concludes these proceedings. As you’ve heard, you will have three months to pay that figure.”

Palmer, of Sandford Green, Banbury, was sentenced earlier this year to an 18 month community order with 120 hours of unpaid work.

In August 2018, masked raider Vann was jailed for six years for his part in the robbery.

Together with an accomplice, he’d driven to The Duck on the Pond on the evening of May 25.

Vann, who’d only recently been released from an earlier five year jail term for robbery, was armed with a machete and his fellow raider was holding an 'antique sword'. They threatened the landlady, who was cashing up alone, telling her they planned to tie her up and asked for the safe.

Over £5,000 in cash was taken together with the woman’s Audi R8. A getaway car was discovered at the back of the Fairway Fish Bar, Banbury, and Vann was traced to a property in the town. He fled when he saw the officers, but police dogs found him hiding in undergrowth nearby.

Susan Palmer outside Oxford Crown Court

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