IT was a terrifying armed robbery that has become something of a cursed criminal trial.
Two men, armed with a sledgehammer and a shortened shotgun, smashed their way into the Abermain Bowling Club at closing time on June 19, 2017, tied up a female staff member and stole nearly $16,000 in cash.
Twice the trial was started and aborted.
And the third time, after listening to three weeks of evidence and deliberating for four days, a jury was deadlocked over whether a man, 35, accused of being armed with the gun and a woman accused of concealing his involvement were, in fact, involved in the frightening heist.
Unable to reach unanimous or majority verdicts, the jury was discharged and the future of the trial, and whether the DPP would elect to prosecute again, remained in limbo.
However, on a separate charge, the jury did find the pair, a former barmaid at Weston's Criterion Hotel and her 35-year-old male associate, who cannot be identified, guilty of conspiring to rob the pub and give the new owners "a nice, real warm welcome to Weston".
And last week, in Sydney's Downing Centre District Court, the pair were sentenced for conspiring to rob the pub.
The man was jailed for a maximum of two years, essentially time served, while the woman received an intensive corrections order, an alternative to a full-time custodial sentence.
But after more than two-and-a-half years, the Abermain Bowling Club armed robbery trial is not going away.
After he was sentenced last week, the man was granted conditional bail because the prosecution intends to run another trial in relation to the bowling club heist.
The trial is listed to start again next year.
Prosecutors allege the 35-year-old was the man armed with a firearm who stormed the Goulburn Street Club with Joel Brendan Shoesmith, now 36, and confronted a female staff member as she was preparing to close up for the night.
The two men forced her to the ground, tied her arms and legs with gaffer tape and ransacked the tills.
They then untied the staff member, took her to an ATM to empty the cash boxes and then forced her to open 19 poker machines.
The offenders then entered the contents of the machines into bags.
In total, they stole nearly $16,000.
The staff member was then tied to a table leg and the pair fled to a Nissan Pulsar, which was later found burnt out.
The woman is accused of concealing a serious indictable offence, namely that the 35-year-old man had committed the Abermain Bowling Club armed robbery.
