ARMED RAID BY MASKED TRIO AT BOOKIES

Two female cashiers were left "shaken and upset" after three masked men held up a Chaddesden betting shop.

The men threatened staff at Ladbrokes, Nottingham Road, with a metal bar and what police believe was a gun.

After taking cash, they fled down an alley into Ravenscroft Drive, leaving a trail of loose change.

The robbers were black, dressed in dark clothing and wearing balaclavas. One of them, who inquired about the score of a Liverpool football match, is aged 25 to 28, 5ft 7ins tall and slim.

Police are keen to trace a white man, who was in a white van, with a registration beginning FL03, parked in Ravenscroft Drive near the alley. He was also seen in the alley using a mobile phone.

The armed robbery, at 9pm on Friday, follows another incident on a Friday night in June at the Ladbrokes shop in Shardlow Road, Alvaston.

Police said then that they believed a gunman and an accomplice may have been responsible for raids on Ladbrokes shops in Nottingham in May.

2005-08-12