AN ARMED robber who terrified staff at a Halesowen bank during a vicious raid has been jailed for 16 years.

Stephen Loftus, from Bewdley, was on the run at the time from police after failing to comply with the requirements of his licence following his release from a seven year jail term for conspiracy to rob a cash-in-transit van.

Loftus who was with an accomplice when robbed the Britannia Building Society in Halesowen of £5,000.

A woman employee said she felt she saw the double barrels of a shotgun protruding from a bag and she had been badly hit by

psychological problems as a result of the raid.

Judge Phillip Parker QC, at Wolverhampton Crown Court, said: "She has suffered from a great deal of stress and as a result she has had to have a significant amount of time off work."

He said the day after the armed raid the woman had seen a man walk into the building society carrying a bag and she had felt

"sick and petrified."

Just days before the Halesowen robbery a 67-year-old cashier was "roughed up" at Santander in Bearwood where three men got away with £5,000 in cash after one of them had vaulted over a security screen.

The judge told 34-year-old Loftus he had clearly acted as a "support" man on the raid and he had not been able

to resist making a gun gesture with his finger at the pensioner while he was smiling.

The two raids, added the Judge, had been well planned with Loftus earlier going into the first premises and posing as a customer

to get the "lie of the land" before returning when he parked the gang's getaway car nearby.

Loftus, of Hallstone Close, had denied two charges of robbery and also possessing an imitation firearm but he was convicted by

a jury at the end of his trial.

He pleaded guilty to careless driving after he used the getaway car to mount the pavement to get away from the scene of the

first raid and he was further disqualified from driving for six months.

Mr Andrew Jackson defending said it was accepted Loftus had a far from exemplary record but stressed he was not a man who had been responsible for a huge amount of violence.

The robberies, he told the court, were over very quickly and while there had been threats the violence dished out by the gang had been "mercifully brief."