An electrician calmly walked out of a Whitstable bank with a wad of stolen money after telling a terrified cashier he had a gun.

Danny Powell handed the Barclays worker a note saying he was armed before strolling out of the door of the High Street branch with almost £2,000 on a busy Saturday morning.

Not content with his lot, the greedy 36-year-old then targeted another bank two days later, this time 200 miles away in Derbyshire.

But he came unstuck after leaving a palm print on his first demand note, which three months later led police to his door in Manor Road, Tankerton.

He has today been jailed for four-and-a-half years after admitting robbery and attempted robbery.

Prosecutor Walton Hornsby told Canterbury Crown Court how in March Powell had walked into Barclays in Whitstable and passed one of the staff the note.

It read: “Listen, this is not a prank. I have a gun. Hand over all the cash in the tills now.”

The terrified cashier handed over £1,925 and then watched as Powell “simply walked out of the bank calmly”, added the prosecutor.

Mr Hornsby said two days later Powell, this time wearing sunglasses, was in Eckington near Chesterfield with two other men.

“He walked into a Lloyds Bank and handed a note to the cashier, which read ‘I have a gun. Hand over the money now or I will start shooting’,” he added.

But the court heard how the cashier went to the back of the bank and triggered the alarm, forcing Powell to flee.

Mr Hornsby said detectives were able to retrieve a palm print with his DNA from the demand note in Whitstable and then identified him from CCTV in Derbyshire.

He was arrested in Whitstable in June and has now pleaded guilty to the two offences.

Sara Haroon, defending, said the qualified electrician, who is an alcoholic, now wanted to apologise to his victims.

“He is extremely sorry for his behaviour but wants them both to know there never was any weapon,” she said.

But Judge Heather Norton told him that the cashiers would have been terrified by his demand notes and would not have known he had no weapon.

“One of your victims was left shaking and later needed counselling,” she said. “Although I accept there is no evidence you had a gun, the cashiers didn’t know that.

“What on earth possessed you on two occasions to commit these offences? Quite why you committed these offences, even with your alcohol misuse is difficult to understand.”