Kirby Armstrong pleaded guilty to Neath pub robbery and stealing 1500kg safe in Cessnock

A Cessnock woman found out just how hard it was to crack open a safe after stealing it from a local pub.

Neath Hotel had their safe stolen on March 9, 2020 before it was found in a laneway with a hole cut in it. Google street view.

Cessnock woman Kirby Lea Armstrong found out just how hard it is to crack open a safe after breaking into a local pub before attaching the 1500kg coffer to a piece of rope and dragging it along the road behind a vehicle.

The 33-year-old admitted to breaking into the Neath Hotel on Cessnock Rd on March 9 last year and stealing the pub’s safe alongside co-accused Casey Broad, according to police facts.

CCTV footage from the nearby Entrance service station captured a dark coloured SUV — a Nissan X-Trail which had been stolen days earlier — dragging an object along Cessnock Rd at about 4.20am that morning.

Kirby Armstrong was involved in a pub robbery and stealing a safe Credit: Facebook

In the safe was the day’s float, keys to the hotel’s courtesy bus, cash and jewellery worth tens of thousands of dollars.

But getting the safe open wasn’t an easy task.

According to police facts tendered to Newcastle Local Court, the pair dragged the safe for about 500 metres to nearby Northumberland St and asked for help to crack it open before getting a trailer.

Police allege they also enlisted the help of the third co-accused and Armstrong’s roommate Ryan Eveleigh to try to lift it into the trailer by using the bullbar of another vehicle.

Police allege they also tried their luck with a grinder.

Later that morning an employee from the Neath Hotel arrived to start work and noticed the door had been opened and the courtesy bus missing before calling police.

It was 8am when police found the courtesy bus dumped in bushland at Kearsley and the safe lying on Northumberland street with a hole in it.

That same day, police raided Armstrong’s home in Abermain and found bags full of coins in her bedroom before arresting her.

Police facts stated Armstrong said she was on a walk when she found the safe in the laneway and took coins from it before spending some on cigarettes.

Armstrong appeared in Newcastle Local Court last week. Supplied Amy Ziniak

“My prints might be on the safe, I just reached inside though. I didn’t steal the safe,” she said.

But Armstrong later pleaded guilty to aggravated break and enter in company to steal, receive property theft, be carried in a conveyance taken without consent and a charge of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception set to be used as a related offence.

Two other counts of aggravated break and enter and receive property theft were withdrawn.

She will head to Newcastle District Court next month for a sentence date.

Broad is charged with aggravated break and enter in company to steal and receive property theft. He has made no pleas and will be back in court next week.