Aman who fled the country after he and another criminal stormed a travel agents in Tewkesbury with an axe and stole more than £40,000 was jailed for eight years yesterday.

Wayne Layburn and his accomplice threatened a customer and member of staff at Thomas Cook in Tewkesbury with "cutting off their hands" if they did not comply with their demands.

Layburn of no fixed address, and his accomplice struck at the travel agents in Tewkesbury High Street on August 20, 2005, and escaped with £41,118.27 in cash, currency, travellers' cheques and travel vouchers. His accomplice has never been charged.

Layburn fled to Tenerife after the robbery and then to Holland. He was arrested in Holland in July 2007 and extradited back to England in July 2008 and arrested at Heathrow.

He was meant to face trial at Gloucester Crown Court on Monday but after legal discussions including an indication by the judge of a likely sentence, he pleaded guilty to the robbery.

He denied possession of an axe and the prosecution did not proceed with this on the grounds that his accomplice carried the weapon.

On Tuesday, he pleaded guilty to six counts of converting English and American travellers' cheques into cash on September 14, 2005.

The amounts converted amounted to £2,500 and $1,750.

Giles Nelson, defending, said: "This was a violent robbery. At the time of the robbery there was a single customer and two members of staff in Thomas Cook.

"Part of the plan was it would be late in the day when the cashing up process was taking place.

"Two offenders entered the premises. They were gloved and partially disguised.

"One of the men, who we accept was not the defendant, produced a small axe from his clothing and shouted for everybody to get down.

"The customer, Peter Smith, made a bolt for the door but was swiftly apprehended and was threatened with having his hands chopped off.

"One of the robbers walked into the Bureau de Change area where, sensibly enough, the female member of staff, Sandra Lewis, opened the safe and he made off with sterling, travellers' cheques, and worldwide travel vouchers worth £41,000.

"On leaving, the departing line was 'If you move we will shoot you'."

Mr Nelson said shortly after the robbery an officer identified Layburn, originally from North Shields, Northumbria, from two stills from the CCTV footage.

He said that a thumbprint of Layburn was found on a map in the boot of the getaway vehicle, a Vauxhll Corsa, found abandoned in Newent – 20 miles from the robbery.

He said by August 23, 2005, Layburn had fled the country and eventually arrived in Tenerife. He was later discovered to be on remand in Holland for bringing cocaine into the country.

Mr Nelson said: "On July 25 he was arrested at Heathrow after the extradition process."

He added that all three victims of the robbery had been badly shaken by the event.

Tim Evans, defending, said his client, who had a long history of offending for violence and dishonesty, said his client did not take the axe or make any threats.

Sentencing Layburn, Judge William Hart said: "This involved coming from another part of the country to maximise your chances of escape. To an extent, that has succeeded as the other man has not been apprehended."