A JURY has been told about a “petrifying” armed robbery at a Boscombe snooker club.

Bournemouth Crown Court heard a blind man was attacked with a hammer and a pistol shot was fired into the roof at The Academy in Christchurch Road.

Two raiders in balaclavas then escaped on a motorbike with just over £4,000 at around 3.26am on Wednesday, October 22, last year, the court was told.

Prosecutors opening a trial yesterday claimed the raid was planned by four men from the now-closed Deacon’s pub on the same road.

Alexander Calderwood, 47, of Christchurch Road, Bournemouth, and William Grogan, 47, of Belle Vue Gardens, Bournemouth, have pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to rob.

Two other men, Martin Willis and Martin Trent, have already admitted carrying out the robbery and are awaiting sentence.

Prosecutor James Patrick yesterday told the jury that two men burst into the private members’ snooker club shouting and swearing at people to get on the ground.

The club had a buzzer system but the lock was defective and did not engage, he said.

“For those in the club it must have been petrifying,” said Mr Patrick.

“Martin Willis had a hammer. One customer sat at the bar didn’t move quickly enough, a man called Keith Riggs. It would have taken him a little longer because he was blind. That didn’t spare him. He was struck.”

Willis, armed with the hammer, was shown on the club CCTV keeping people lying down, while Trent, armed with the pistol, moved around the bar and safe area, the prosecution said.

Mr Patrick played the jury CCTV from the street showing Trent and Willis riding the motorbike between Deacons and The Academy.

He said there was circumstantial evidence that Grogan and Calderwood were involved in planning the raid.

“Mr Grogan at the time was a part-owner of the pub,” he said.

He played pub CCTV footage of four men in Deacons before the raid, and said one image showed Willis walking near Grogan while carrying a balaclava.

And he said there were text and phone exchanges involving Grogan, Calderwood and Trent before the robbery and afterwards.

Calderwood went into The Academy with three other people a few minutes before it was raided, said Mr Patrick, and used his phone soon after arriving.

Mr Patrick said: “At the time he was treated as a witness and gave a statement to police.

“It was as a result of that phone evidence that Mr Calderwood and Mr Grogan moved from being witnesses to suspects.”

Police launched a large scale raid on the pub four days later and found balaclavas, a hammer, and over £4,000 in cash, the hearing was told.

“The gun, worryingly, was never found,” said Mr Patrick.

Trent and Willis pleaded guilty after police used “body mapping” to link them to the images of the men in the raid, the court heard.

They both denied Calderwood and Grogan helped plan the raid.

The case continues.