BUNGLING armed robber Robert Downie tried to hold up a convenience store with a toy gun but was forced out into the street by the brave shop owner and his assistant.

Downie, 20, had burst in to the Londis on Bridge Street with the £1 plastic plaything wrapped in a sock and demanded the cash.

But rather than cower from the 'gunman' Selvanayagam Selvakumar and his assistant Ariyanayagam Jeyanthan hurled him out of the store.

Later when Downie went back to his digs at a town centre hostel he confessed to a member of staff he had done something stupid and then handed himself in to police.

Colin Meeke, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court the defendant went to the town centre shop at about 8pm on April 26.

Earlier in evening he had bought the toy gun and because it didn't look real he went back to Culvery Court to get a sock to put over it.

Playing CCTV footage from inside the store Mr Meeke said Downie could be seen bursting in an pointing the gun over the counter.

The court was told he said 'Give me the money', but instead Mr Selvakumar came on to the shop floor, where his colleague was, and they tackled the raider.

Mr Meeke said after bundling him out of the store they carried on working as if nothing had happened.

And they declined to make victim personal statement when the police went to ask them about the effect it had on them.

Mr Meeke said when he got back to the hostel in 'shaken state' he admitted that he had 'done something stupid' and a member of staff called the police.

Downie, of Culvery Court, Harding Street, pleaded guilty to attempted robbery. The court heard he had no previous convictions.

Rob Ross, defending, said "It is hard to see a more inept robbery that you have just witnessed."

He said his client suffered from psychosis and paranoia as a result of smoking too much cannabis, starting when he was 11, and felt he would be safer in prison.

"Most liberal people like us forget one of the problems of smoking skunk cannabis at a very young age is it affects the way your brain develops in the teenage years.

"It inevitably causes some disturbance in the brain which causes paranoia and psychosis."

Since being remanded in custody he said he had not been using the drug and the psychosis was diminishing.

Mr Ross said "When I saw him this morning he said to me 'I fell remorseful, it was a stupid thing to do'."

Jailing him for two years and four months Judge Jason Taylor QC said "You entered a local convenience store and produced an imitation firearm.

"The staff refused and attempted to disarm you. It is right to say that the members of staff carried on as if nothing had happened and have declined to make victim personal statements.

"Notwithstanding that you can't avoid the fact that this would have been frightening. "