A ROBBER said to have demanded cash and drugs while holding car keys to his victim's throat has been jailed.

Jonathan Shire, who posed as an undercover police officer after taking crack cocaine, was jailed for 21 months for the Worcester robbery when he appeared at Hereford Crown Court on Tuesday.

Shire was also ordered by judge Nicholas Cole to pay a victim surcharge of £140.

We previously reported how two men were cleared of the same robbery after Shire told the jury he had acted alone.

Shire posed as an undercover police officer as he demanded cash and drugs from a couple in a car.

The robbery took place at Kenwood Close, off Kenwood Avenue, Worcester, on July 24 last year

Shire, 28, of Mulberry Terrace, Worcester, stole £10 and a set of car keys from a couple parked in a Renault Clio. He disputed using the key as a weapon to threaten the man in the car but admitted the robbery.

Shire said: "I ran over to the car, said I was police and demanded the cannabis."

Shire told the jury how on the day of the robbery he had been drinking 'everywhere' in Worcester and had smoked cannabis and crack cocaine and taken ecstasy.

There had been cries of 'yes!' from the public gallery at Worcester Crown Court as Paul Gill and Darren Smith were both unanimously acquitted of the robbery.

Shire gave evidence from the witness box to say he acted without the knowledge of Mr Gill and Mr Smith, whom he described as 'associates' rather than 'friends'.

Shire had been sitting in the back passenger seat of Mr Smith's BMW when they went to buy cigarettes, alcohol and fuel at the Texaco garage in Tolladine Road.

He estimated it took Mr Smith about 15 seconds drive them away from the forecourt to where the robbery took place in Kenwood Close.

Shire said he overheard Mr Gill saying he had found £20 of crack cocaine and would have smoked some himself 'if there was any going' once the car had stopped in Kenwood Avenue.

Shire told Mr Smith to stop the car because he needed the toilet, smelled cannabis coming from the Clio and decided to rob the two people inside, spotting the 'red end glare of the fag'.

Shire told the jury Mr Smith drove off with Mr Gill and left him there. Shire insisted 'there was no planning involved'.

"I did not even know what I was going to do it until I smelled the cannabis" he said.

The car keys and the £10 were never recovered and Shire informed the jury he could not remember what he had done with them. Shire was arrested alongside the other two men at an address in Windermere Drive, Warndon, the following day and interviewed by police.

Before the hearing both Mr Smith and Mr Gill said from the witness box that that they felt like victims because they had been accused of a crime they did not commit.