Nicky Beaton (27) and Gary Tierney (29) stole the female cashier’s handbag and used her credit card to withdraw £250 – and two days later robbed a Corby store.

Northampton Crown Court heard how Beaton and Tierney went on a crime spree in August which started after burgling Protheroes Jet garage in Northampton Road, Harborough.

Stephen Crouch, prosecuting, said Carol Parsons was at work when two men wearing high-visibility jackets walked in at about 7pm on August 23.

Mr Crouch said: “They had drawn attention to themselves by the way they had parked a dark blue R-registration Vauxhall Vectra and they were wearing white gloves.”

As one of the men jumped over the counter, the cashier locked herself in the storeroom for her own safety.

Mr Crouch added: “She describes them trying to get into the stock room and the door being kicked. They left, taking her handbag, containing keys and bank cards, and the £80 from the till.”

The court heard how 30 minutes later, the men used one of the cards to withdraw cash at Morissons in Corby, but were caught on CCTV.

Two days later, Beaton and Tierney robbed a Merco store in Corby, again wearing latex gloves, and threatened a female cashier before stealing cigarettes and £75 cash.

The day after, police found the Vectra parked near an house in Corby where both Beaton and Tierney were staying.

Mr Crouch said police found high-visibility jackets and latex gloves in the Vectra, along with hundreds of packets of stolen cigarettes.

Beaton, of Dorking Walk, Corby, and Tierney, of Sutherland Walk, Corby, admitted burglary of Protheroes, as well as theft, robbery and an unconnected affray.

Judge Richard Bray sentenced Beaton, who also admitted breaching a suspended sentence, to four years in jail while Tierney was locked up for three years.

Sentencing Beaton on October 16, he said: “The female cashier was terrified and had to lock herself in the stock room.”

The judge told Tierney: “There was a female cashier present. Such cashiers are vulnerable at night and you must have known that.”

John Lloyd-Jones, for Beaton, said: “He had a chronic heroin addiction but he has been able to rid himself of it.”

Graham Buchanan, defending Tierney, said his client had brought the case forward due to his “anxiety to make a clean breast of it,” adding: “His previous convictions cries out of a man with a drug problem.”