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An “armed” robber who held up a shop with a toy silver gun - as used by the Milkybar Kid - was jailed for four years and three months.

Alan McNeill, 27, from Huyton, produced the replica Colt .45 pistol in a store in Llanrhaeadr ym Mochant, in Powys, Wales and demanded that the till be opened.

He had earlier stolen the gun from a wild west enthusiast who collected cowboy clothing and memorabilia.

Shopkeeper Ian Myrick Jones immediately realised that the gun was a toy and asked the robber, who was wearing a yellow, high visibility jacket and yellow trousers: “What do you think you are doing?”

McNeill then grabbed two bottles of Southern Comfort and fled.

McNeill of Fairclough Road in Huyton, was jailed at Mold Crown Court after he admitted the robbery and the theft of the gun.

Co-defendant Hayley Sudlow, 32, of Queen Elizabeth Close in Oswestry, the getaway driver, was jailed for three years and ten months after admitting the robbery charge.

Prosecutor David Mainstone said that at about 8pm on April 22, when Mr Myrick Jones was alone in the shop, McNeill entered, selected two bottles of Southern Comfort, and placed them on the counter.

He said: “He then produced a gun and it was pointed at Mr Myrick Jones who immediately suspected that the gun was not real.

“He described it as a sliver coloured child’s toy gun similar to that used by The Milkybar Kid.”

The Milky Bar kid is the mascot of chocolate company Nestle, a blond-haired bespectacled child dressed as a cowboy who has appeared in Milkybar adverts since 1961.

The prosecutor said that the robber demanded the money from the till and reached over the counter and tried to open the till by shaking it.

But he was chased off without being able to get to the money.

His then girlfriend Sudlow was witing in white Nissan Primstar van parked nearby, which McNeill jumped into.

A witness heard the man say that he could not open the till.

It turned out that the two defendants had earlier been staying in a flat at the former Three Tuns public house in the village and McNeil had stolen the gun.

Sudlow had borrowed the van from a friend and CCTV from a nearby petrol station showed they were in the vehicle together.