A MASKED raider who held up a betting shop with the arm of a chair wrapped in a bin liner to make it look like a gun has been jailed.

Steven Ross waved the 'weapon' at the terrified cashier and told him 'I'll do it' during the hold up on a Saturday afternoon in January.

And Ross, 41, had doctored the time he said he had left his bail hostel as he went out to commit the raid to try and provide himself with an alibi.

But an eagle-eyed local spotted him acting suspiciously as he changed his clothes in a nearby car in the moments after the raid.

And when police investigated the vehicle they found it contained a bag with the defendant's and cashier's fingerprints on it as well as his disguise.

Claire Marlow, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how the hold up took place at BetFred on Devizes Road, at 4.40pm on Saturday, January 23.

She played store's CCTV footage which showed Lee Childs behind the counter chatting to a customer when a masked man burst in.

Brandishing the bin liner containing the piece of wood he rushed to the till, threw a large Aldi carrier bag at him and said 'This is a robbery: put all the money in the ****ing bag. I'm not messing about'.

"He had something in his hand wrapped in a black bin liner. He said 'I'll ****ing do it'. This, Mr Child, thought was an indication he had a gun.

"He put the money in the bag. Mr Ross then snatched it and ran out of the bookmakers on to Devizes Road."

As well as police receiving a 999 call from the store they also got one on the 101 system from a local resident.

He had spotted someone in a car port on Ripley Road changing their clothing with a scarf and woollen hat as well as a large Aldi bag.

Miss Marlow said the police seized the items and as well as finding they matched the CCTV they also found the fingerprints and DNA on them.

Ross, of Croft Road, pleaded guilty to robbery.

The court heard he had a long list of crime, serving many jail terms.

Kevin Batch, defending, said while the robbery was clearly planned it was not particularly sophisticated.

He said the only consolation in the pre sentence came at the end where his client said he felt he had to change.

"It wasn't a gun. I am told it was a piece of chair arm. Mr Ross accepts that to the person behind the counter it could have been anything," he told the court.

Jailing him for three years and four months, Judge Peter Blair QC said: "I have to sentence you for this offence of robbery which you committed on a bookmakers.

"In order to go about committing it you produced a false timing when you signed out of your accommodation, which I have no doubt was in a view to set up a potential alibi for not being in the bookmakers when you were.

"You changed your clothing in order to make it less easy for you to be identified, you covered your face with a scarf and a beanie hat and adjusted it in footage I have seen from the bookmakers to make it less easy to identify you.

"You made some effort at not being caught for what is a very serious offence, as you know. You know that a serious prison sentence faces you."

In 2012 Ross spoke to the Adver from his hospital bed after nearly being killed by a legal high.

At the time he said: “If I don’t give up I am going to die as well. But when something like this happens to you, it opens your eyes.”