The men, who had been threatened with a hammer, saw the raiders rip the phone off the wall at the Solstice Bar, and then their own mobile phones were smashed to pieces. But they fooled the crooks by using a panic alarm to send out a distress call.

It brought seven police officers and a dog unit dashing to the scene in Northminster Road in the early hours of Monday morning. However, when they could find no sign of forced entry – because a member of staff had been grabbed in the car park and forced to let the three raiders in – they left again.

What the officers did not know was, that inside the building the two men, fearing for their lives, had been forced to hand over cash and had been imprisoned in an office.

Desperate to get help, they set off the panic alarm another four times – but no one answered it.

After the robbers fled with thousands of pounds in cash stuffed into a bin bag, the men broke out of the office and called police back.

Today, however, they and their manager were appalled that the club had received a reprimand from the police for a "false" call out from the panic alarm.

One of the victims, who did not want to be named, said today: "It was like being in a film. When you see a colleague with a hammer held over his head you do what they say. What happened has just started to hit me now.

"You would have thought the police could have at least smashed a window or something to break in and have a look round.

"We could have been locked in the office gravely wounded and in desperate need of medical attention.

"I know police must get a certain number of false alarms, but you never know when they may be real."

General manager, Dawn O'Leary said today: "I couldn't believe it when we received a letter from the police, which was basically ticking us off for setting off the alarm.

"The staff went through an awful lot and were held in a hostage situation – then we got this."

Police said they asked the company responsible for the alarm system to call out a key holder because a personal alarm had been activated. However, they were told that key holders were not called in this situation. The company did not inform police that the alarm had gone off another four times.

Today, a police spokesman said: "As officers could not enter the Solstice for the first alarm activation, it was recorded as a 'false alarm' and a computer generated letter was sent to those involved.

"The victims have been spoken to about why this letter was sent by mistake, and a formal letter of apology has been posted to them."