A BANK robber told a terrified cashier he was armed with a gun and demanded she hand him £30,000 or he would start to “hurt people”.

Alfie Whyte was “very drunk” when walked into the Halifax in Blackwood town centre wearing a high-vis jacket last Christmas.

He went up to the till with his right arm inside his coat at 4pm on Wednesday, December 27 last year.

Andrew Kendall, prosecuting, said: “The defendant told her, ‘I've got a gun. I know you've got £30,000 at your feet.’

“The complainant didn't really comprehend what was going on initially and she asked the defendant, ‘Pardon?’

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“He repeated what he had said and it was at that point that the complainant says she noticed the significance of the defender's hand being inside his jacket.

South Wales Argus: Alfie Whyte

“She told her manager what the defendant had said and the manager tried to explain to him that they didn't have immediate access to that kind of money, stating that the money was on a timed delay.”

Mr Kendall added: “That appears to have caused the defendant to become agitated and he said to the complainant that he then wanted the cash that was in the box to her side.

“He looked around at the customers in the bank and said he was going to hurt people if he wasn't given the money.

“There were a number of customers inside the bank at the time, including children.”

Whyte was given just over £900 and left the Halifax and was later seen offering people money at the nearby The New Foresters pub.

He then tried to hold up the Texaco petrol station in the town before he was chased off by Christopher Ware who armed himself with a metal pole.

The 30-year-old Whyte, of no fixed abode, Blackwood admitted robbery and attempted robbery.

The defendant has previous convictions for violence and has been jailed twice in the past for grievous bodily harm with intent and grievous bodily harm and assault on an emergency worker.

Halifax manager Joanna Davies revealed in a victim impact statement she has decided to leave the banking industry after 17 years because of her traumatic experience.

Gareth Williams representing Whyte at Newport Crown Court asked for his client’s early guilty pleas to be taken into account.

The judge, Recorder Mark Powell KC, told the defendant: “You were highly intoxicated.

“You approached a cashier and demanded money and you told her on at least two occasions that the bulge in your jacket was a gun.

“As a result of your threats, she handed over the sum of £905.”

Whyte was jailed for four years.