Betfred workers Lewis Phillips, 24, of High Street, Guildford and Kiziah Annan, 23, of The Ridgeway, Cranleigh pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal and perverting the course of justice. Annan’s ex-boyfriend, Julius Lewis, 22, of Selsdon Road, Croydon pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal.

Annan was jailed for nine months and Phillips was sentenced to four months, suspended for two years. He was also ordered to complete 200 hours unpaid work and pay £2,000 compensation and £1,500 costs.

Lewis was given a five-week custodial sentence, suspended for two years. He too was ordered to pay £2,000 compensation and £1,500 costs.

Phillips and Annan had been working at Betfred, Annan as assistant manager, on a Sunday in May, 2018, when they reported a robbery. They described a suspect who they claimed had taken £6,000.

But police thought their statements and behaviour seemed suspicious. By carefully piecing together CCTV footage, mobile phone contact between Annan and Lewis, bank statements and sightings of Lewis’s car in the area of the robbery, detectives gathered sufficient evidence to charge all three.

Detective Constable Kerry Plumb, who assisted on the case, said: “DC Michael Taylor worked extremely hard on this case prior to his retirement.

“Annan and Phillips completely gave themselves away in the way they behaved with the attending officers and it quickly became evident the ‘robbery’ had been staged. Lewis’s involvement in this was also quickly identified.”