INITIALLY the cleaner vacuuming alone inside the Greta Workers Club about 5am on a morning in December, 2018, wasn't concerned when he saw the reflection of a figure near the glass front doors of the club.
It was probably just the club's greenkeeper, who usually arrived at that time, he thought.
But then he heard banging and saw two males outside, one holding a sports bag and the other smashing the glass door with a baseball bat.
Over the next five to 10 minutes the cleaner would be subject to a terrifying ordeal, during which he was ordered to lie on the ground, smashed in the head, back and hands with a baseball bat, had a sawn-off shotgun pointed at his head and was repeatedly told "don't move or I'll blow your head off".
When the robbers noticed the cleaner had a ring on his finger they ordered him to hand it over.
"No, I can't get it off it's too tight," the cleaner said.
"We'll take your finger," the man with the gun replied.
The gunman Solomon Kifooti and Adam Potoczko, who was armed with a large samurai sword, appeared in Newcastle Local Court this week and pleaded guilty to armed robbery.
Potoczko, who is represented by solicitor Donna Smith, and Kifooti, who is represented by solicitor Adrian Kiely, will be sentenced in Newcastle District Court later in the year.
Two other men, Jonah Taufua, who police allege was armed with a baseball bat, and the accused getaway driver, Tyler Priestley, remain before Newcastle Local Court. They have not entered pleas.
The cleaner arrived at the Greta Workers Club about 4.20am on December 22, 2018, locked the front doors and went to work. He was vacuuming about 5.10am when he saw someone he thought was the greenkeeper. But when he heard the glass doors being smashed he retreated to an area of the club, crouched down and called triple-zero.
Kifooti snatched the phone out of the cleaner's hands and hung it up. He then dragged him over to the bar area and the man with the baseball bat came up behind the cleaner and hit him in the right side of the head. He then struck him again in the back and the cleaner noticed there was a third man, Potoczko, inside the club armed with a large samurai sword.
He was told to get on the ground at gunpoint and then the man with the baseball bat swung at him again, but this time the cleaner raised his hands to protect himself and the bat broke two of his fingers.
He was forced to the ground, threatened repeatedly that he would have his head blown off if he moved and Kifooti put his foot on the cleaner's neck to hold him down.
The cleaner said he could hear the other two men ransacking the club and smashing things before they suddenly left.
He estimated the whole ordeal lasted between five and 10 minutes.
The men stole five bottles of alcohol, pool cues and a laptop and fled in a Volkswagen Amarok which had been stolen from a house at Ryde the day before.
Mr Taufua and Kifooti were arrested at Dee Why on New Year's Eve, 2018, after the stolen car ploughed into other vehicles in a car park and sparked a violent brawl with police.
