TWO young men who were part of a terrifying machete raid at a village post office, which yielded just £45 have been locked up for a total of ten years.

Daniel Hann, one of two men with faces partly concealed who entered the small store and post office in Bishop Middleham, County Durham, shortly before 7.30pm on September 14, last year, received a six-year sentence in a young offenders’ institution.

Co-accused Callum Connley, who used his own car to take the robbers to the scene and then acted as the getaway driver, was given a four-year sentence.

Hann’s now former partner, Sarah Yates, the mother of his four-month old child, who provided a false alibi statement to police claiming he never left home that evening, was sentenced to 20-months, suspended for two years.

Durham Crown Court heard that in what was, “the stuff of nightmares” for any vulnerable worker in small shops on an evening, the female assistant feared she may be stabbed by Hann’s machete-wielding accomplice, who remains at large.

Paul Reid, prosecuting, said she described the blade on the machete-type knife he was carrying as, “massive”.

Hann grabbed the till, hoping to lift it from the counter, but it was bolted down.

They then shouted: “Hand the money over”, and the assistant pressed to open the till drawer, revealing the £45, which Hann took, adding: “And the rest.”

But she told them that was all there was, and when a look-out at the door leaned in to urge the robbers to, “hurry up”, they fled the premises.

Mr Reid said during the ordeal the man with the machete slammed it down onto the counter, piercing the surface.

He told the court that through subsequent cell site analysis both defendants' phones were found to have made calls in the vicinity of Bishop Middleham that evening, while Connley appeared to have also been there earlier in the day.

The top the prosecution believe Hann was wearing during the raid was later found in a carrier bag in a bin near his home and it was found to carry his DNA.

Both Hann and Connley, then aged 19, now 20, of Coxhoe, near Durham, denied involvement in the robbery.

But, with their scheduled trial approaching Connley, of Park Avenue, changed his plea to ‘guilty’ earlier this year.

Hann, of The Grove, put in his ‘guilty’ plea on the day of the scheduled trial, in early March, but it had been indicated to the prosecution earlier.

Yates, 22, of George Street, Bowburn, also changed her plea to ‘guilty’ to a charge of doing an act to pervert the course of justice.

The court heard the events of that evening have had a lasting effect on the community-spirited assistant who told the court in her victim statement that she quit the job she previously enjoyed within weeks of the raid, as she feared a repeat, particularly when she was alone in the store.

Andrew Finlay, for Hann, read a letter of apology from him, in which he said he regretted taking part in the robbery and intends to go straight in future.

Mr Finlay said at the time he was taking cannabis quite heavily, which clouded his judgement.

He added that he agreed to take part in the raid, through, “peer pressure”.

Peter Walsh, for Connley, who has no previous convictions, said he was criminally unsophisticated, using his own car, making no attempt to conceal the registration or his identity.

Clair Anderson, for Yates, said she agreed to give her statement thinking Hann had gone to buy cannabis, only later finding out what he was actually doing, at the time.

Passing sentence, Recorder Neil Barker said: “The facts of this case are the stuff of nightmare for any small community Post Office worker, exposed, as they are, to anyone coming into the shop, vulnerable to anyone seeking to rob them.”

He praised the shop assistant for having the presence of mind to ring the panic button despite being in the face of the “terrifying” weapon which was wielded by Hann’s unknown accomplice.