A gunman who robbed a bookmaker with what he claims was a water pistol has been jailed for five years and three months.

Michael King waved the realistic looking weapon in the face of the woman behind the counter at the Old Town branch of Corals.

And when the terrified cashier fled into a back room the masked raider leaned over the counter and grabbed the £300 she had left behind and ran off.

Hannah Squire, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how the 38-year-old had visited the Victoria Road bookies the night before the raid joking about a stick up.

Then on Friday January 12 she said he was seen on CCTV with a scarf tied round his face before he burst into the store and brandished the gun.

“It looked very much like a black handgun. I know Mr Ross says it was a water pistol: well it was a very authentic gun-looking water pistol,” she said.

“He produced a weapon and put it in her face. It is something that would have been absolutely terrifying.

“He said ’Give me all your money, give me your money now’. The cashier did what was absolutely the right thing in the circumstances.

“She ran from the desk and out the back. There was £300 there that Mr King took as he left.”

Miss Squire said that when police saw the CCTV, Det Con Matt Salmon immediately recognised King from previous dealings.

When he was questioned the defendant insisted that he would never do such a thing and had been elsewhere at the time.

Miss Squire said in the weeks before the incident he burgled Retrac Composites, on Bramble Road, taking cash, and MTC Learning, on Manchester Road.

King, of Olivier Road, Abbeymeads, admitted robbery, possessing an imitation firearm and two burglaries.

The court heard he had more than 100 previous convictions including numerous burglaries and a robbery in 2010 for which he got six years.

Rob Ross, defending, said his client was a ‘hard core heroin addict’ in his 20s, having started on cannabis when he was about 14.

He said he first turned to drugs when his father died but at the time of the armed robbery he was drunk, but not on heroin.

In 2010 he said he nearly died after being stabbed, and had now post traumatic stress disorder.

Over the years he said he had lost a number of people, including a brother, to heroin addiction and had made an attempt on his own life shorty before the raid.

“He can only apologise for what he did. He is not remotely proud of it,” Mr Ross said.

Jailing him Judge Jason Taylor QC said "On January 12 of this year you entered a betting shop. You had your head covered by scarf.

“It was a complete disguise and you were holding what appeared to be a black handgun which you pointed at a staff member. She must have been absolutely terrified.”

He issued a warrant for the arrest of Taylor Croft, 42, formerly of Deerhurst Way, Toothill, but now of Walter Close, The Prinnells, who is accused of robbery.