A ROBBER who said he was forced to hold up a garage by a violent 'boss' has been jailed for four years.

Sean Hunt, aged 27, had maintained that he had only committed the robbery because he was in fear of Kenneth Trinder, aged 51, who, he said, had beaten him up and threatened to kill him.

But a jury at Gloucester Crown Court last month found him guilty of robbery at Abbey Garage, Toddington, on October 14.

Sentencing Hunt at the court on Monday (April 2), Judge Gabriel Hutton said it was a lenient sentence because Hunt, of Lowesmoor Road, Worcester, had clearly been assaulted and influenced by the other man, whom he met in a bail hostel in January last year.

Yet he told him: "You are a man with your own mind and your 'minder', if that is the right expression, was not present in the shop when you committed the robbery. He was apparently away in the background waiting for you in the car."

He added: "I do accept that this other man, who has not been prosecuted for this robbery, is apparently a very violent man. There is ample evidence, which I heard coming from police officers, that you had been taken around in a car during the day after this robbery and had been really quite severely beaten by this man."

During his trial, Hunt claimed that he would end up 'six feet under' if he didn't carry out the robbery in which he took a knife into the garage and grabbed £450 from the till.

He said Trinder had beaten him regularly and threatened him and his family if Hunt did not keep working for him. He said Trinder had told him to rob the garage because he needed the money to repay a debt.

Miss Lynne Matthews, defending Hunt, said on Monday: "Had Mr Hunt not met this man I am quite confident he would not be in this courtroom today."