AN hotel owner from Callow End is imposing rigorous checks on future bed & breakfast tenants after a previous guest committed an armed robbery at the local post office.

Twenty-two-year-old Rickardo Khan shocked the village when he held-up the post office at knifepoint in March this year and escaped with £3,590.

Wheatfields Court proprietor, Tim Billingham, has since adopted a strict policy after Khan was jailed for five years at Worcester Crown Court in June.

Mr Billingham has reassured villagers that future tenants will be tightly scrutinised.

"In light of what happened and other events I am no longer taking any people whose history I don't have some knowledge of," he said.

"I am not taking homeless referrals. Unfortunately, I can no longer do that.

"I am not taking anyone unless I have some knowledge of their history or unless they are recommended to me by someone I trust."

But he denied claims by one villager, who would not be named, that some tenants had brought drink and drugs problems to the village.

"I don't take drugs but if I did there are several places I would go in Callow End and Wheatfields Court is not one of them," he added.

"It is basically a bed & breakfast hotel. There are some people who have been living there for many years and some of them are probably not even known to the village."

Callow End district councillor Tom Wells acknowledged there were fears among the villagers about some of the tenants.

"Within the village there is genuine anxiety concerning some of the short-term tenancy arrangements provided," he said.

"The recent armed robbery by a man living at the court has confirmed villagers' worst fears.

"Surely such people need the support mechanisms that only a town or city can provide.

"But it is important to make a distinction between some of the well-established tenants at Wheatfields who play a big part in village life."