Tesco worker calls in sick ... then drives getaway car for raid on his store hours later!

A TESCO shelf- stacker who called in sick for work took part in a robbery at the store the same day.

Steven Banks, 35, acted as a getaway driver for a pair of violent masked robbers who stole almost £6,000.

As he waited in a Ford Mondeo, the men entered the store and confronted two members of staff who were filling the tills with cash.

A court heard Banks – who was disqualified from driving – would have known exactly what time the tills were filled.

One of the Tesco workers, a 60-year-old woman who was standing near a mobile safe with some of the money, was struck on the back of her head.

She later recalled: ‘The man was shouting at me to “shut up, stay down, hands up”. I thought he had a gun.’

The pair bundled £5,780 of cash from the safe into a bag and

Jailed: Steven Banks escaped, but a quick-thinking employee scribbled down the registration number of the stolen getaway car.

It was later found abandoned nearby with Banks’s fingerprints on the gear stick, leading to his arrest.

It emerged that the Mondeo had been fitted with false number plates after being stolen earlier.

Detectives also seized two mobile phones from Banks and the data from these placed him at the scene of the robbery at the Tesco store in Kidsgrove, Staffordshire, on November 10, 2017.

Banks was jailed for 12 years last week after pleading guilty to robbery.

So far he is the only person to be charged in connection with the raid. One suspect is still at large and another is ‘in custody for a similar offence’, Stoke- on-Trent Crown Court heard.

The gang travelled to the store in two cars from Birmingham. One was the getaway vehicle and the other, a Mercedes, was used to transport them back to the West Midlands after the Mondeo was abandoned.

The court was told Banks, formerly of Stoke- on-Trent, would have known exactly what time the tills would be filled for the day. Once inside the store the two masked raiders confronted staff and immediately became violent.

The woman who was hit on the head was also thrown against a wall and struck with such force to her chest that she was knocked off her feet.

In a victim impact statement, she revealed she was forced to leave Tesco due to ill health and has never worked since. She now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, nightmares, panic attacks and flashbacks.

She told the court: ‘I used to be very active. All this has stopped because these men wanted easy money. I hope that they are punished and made to feel as low and helpless as I feel now.’

Prosecutor Hugh O’Brien Quinn told the court: ‘The defendant was in financial difficulties. He had sent a message to a girlfriend, suggesting he had considered robbing a petrol station.

‘He then received a message on November 11 from another woman, asking him where all the money had come from the day before.

‘He later told police it was in relation to wages from Tesco, but he was not paid on or around November 10.’

Samina Rashid, mitigating, said the other men had approached Banks because of his Tesco links.

‘He certainly had no idea what had gone on inside until later. He received a financial payment for his role,’ she added.

The court heard Banks had been living in Scotland to take care of his sick mother.

Judge Paul Glenn told him: ‘Your involvement was a leading role. It couldn’t have happened without you and your knowledge.’

‘I thought he had a gun’