Sitting in the dock wearing a smart suit, grey-haired and bespectacled Martyn Weldrick presented as a normal middle-aged man.

He was just that until he “bizarrely” decided to terrorise NatWest bank staff in two robberies while threatening to shoot people.

Even more strangely the 45-year-old married father claimed to have dumped cash from the first robbery in Hythe in the sea in Deal and dye-stained bank notes from the second raid in Coxheath, Maidstone, were tossed into a river.

Now, Weldrick, formerly of Ormonde Road, Hythe, now of Cambridge Gardens, Folkestone, has started a jail sentence of three years and nine months.

Maidstone Crown Court heard he went into the bank in High Street, Hythe, on October 1 last year wearing a baseball cap, plastic glasses with blue reflective lenses and a hooded top.

Prosecutor Alexia Zimbler said Weldrick placed two envelopes on the counter with a note reading: “Fill the envelopes with money quietly. I have a gun and I will kill people. Don’t use your dye notes.”

Cashier Katherine McDowell was so scared she feared she would have a heart attack.

She filled up one of the envelopes with £5,295 cash and Weldrick told her: “That’s it.” She passed it to him while hitting the panic alarm with her other hand.

"Fill the envelopes with money quietly. I have a gun and I will kill people. Don’t use your dye notes" - Weldrick, to bank clerk

He asked for the note back but left the second envelope behind before walking out of the bank. Ms McDowell was left distressed and crying.

Just over a month later on November 3, Weldrick carried out a similar raid on the bank in Heath Road, Coxheath.

He handed cashier Racheal Rice a note reading: “This is a robbery. Stuff the envelope with cash. I have a gun. No dye packs, no funny money. I will hurt customers if you mess around. Pass me the note back.”

She showed the note to colleague Nicola Reed and told him they did not have a lot of money. Ms Reed slipped dye packs resembling bank notes into the envelope with £1,055 and Ms Rice passed it to Weldrick.

He asked for the note back but Ms Rice refused to give it to him. As he walked out of the bank the dye packs activated covering the cash and his hands in red dye.

A customer who did not want to be named ran after Weldrick. He alerted Ryan Dale, who was in a shop, and he then gave chase.

He told Weldrick to stop but he refused, put his hand in his pocket and declared: “I have got a gun.”

Mr Dale stopped but then chased him again. He saw red “fumes” coming from the envelope. Weldrick again threatened him with being shot.

He walked to a Skoda car and drove off. The bank customer took photos of the car and police were able to identify the registration number.

After discovering it belonged to Weldrick officers went to his home and arrested him.

The next day John Gold told police he had been walking his dog in Hampstead Lane, Yalding, when he saw a bag floating in the river.

He said he fished it out and saw there was money in an envelope covered in red dye. Also in the bag was a pair of gloves.

Weldrick, who has no previous convictions, at first denied any involvement in the offences but he later pleaded guilty to the two robberies.

Weldrick’s lawyer Justin Hugheston-Roberts told the judge: “This is the most bizarre and extraordinary set of offences that have come before the courts for some time.

"Martyn Weldrick’s behaviour was wholly unacceptable and for his own selfish financial gain. He put innocent people in fear of being killed while they worked for honest money" - DS Sgt Steve Smith

“A 45-year-old man who has never been convicted of even parking on a double yellow line walks into a NatWest bank and slips a piece of paper under the cashier’s grill.

“It makes a demand. There was no weapon. There has never been a weapon. He then walks out. I have seen the DVD. He looks at the camera and walks away.”

Mr Hugheston-Roberts said Weldrick could have faced a maximum sentence of life for armed robbery.

“He then goes and does it again. That is what is so extraordinary,” he continued.

Weldrick put the proceeds of the Hythe raid in a sack, filled it with pebbles and deposited it in the sea in Deal. It was never recovered.

Mr Hugheston-Roberts said if the second robbery had not been committed Weldrick would not have been caught.

“His crass stupidity was to go and do it again,” he said. “Irrespective of the dye, he didn’t do anything with the money. He just chucked it away.”

Mr Hugheston-Roberts said the crimes crossed the custody threshold “by a country mile”, but asked what purpose would be served in sending Weldrick to prison.

“Here is a man asking the court for leniency,” he added. “He was going to meltdown. His wife left him with the children.”

Recorder Mark Van Der Zwart said he had read letters from various people, including Weldrick’s parents, about the good side of his character.

“You must be distraught to see the shame you have brought to your family,” he told him.

“But the plain fact is on this particular day, whatever reasons compelled you to do it in October last year, you walked into a small bank branch and terrified two ladies working there.

“Threats strike terror into everybody these days. You made off. Precisely what you did with the proceeds I am not in a position to determine.

“Having terrified those two women you did it again. You were determined to get away. Two men pursued you in a very brave and public-spirited way. I want to commend both of them.”

The judge said the raids may not have been sophisticated, but they were pre-planned.

“The victims were vulnerable,” he said. “Plainly, you expected there would be large sums of money and you were right.”

Despite a gambling habit and drug misuse in the past, Weldrick had held down jobs. He had money problems when committing the robberies.

“These were two robberies on vulnerable people in banks where you made it plain people would be shot with a gun,” Recorder Van Der Zwart added.

“That is serious crime indeed.”

Six months of a tagged curfew will count towards the sentence.

After sentencing, Acting Detective Sergeant Steve Smith of Kent Police said: "Martyn Weldrick’s behaviour was wholly unacceptable and for his own selfish financial gain. He put innocent people in fear of being killed while they worked for honest money.

"Hopefully this sentence will give him a chance to reflect on that fact, and act as a deterrent to anyone who thinks robbing from a bank is a victimless crime.

"The staff and customers of both banks acted with courage and good instinct to provide quality evidence which has secured this conviction."