A BUS fare robber who intimidated the father of his victim has been sent to jail for 14 months.

Gary Gunning walked up to John Kane as he stood by a town centre bus shelter and, after threatening him, took the £1.20 he had on him, Swindon Crown Court heard.

But a few weeks later he went to the home of his victim and told his dad: "I'm going to rip his head off. He is in the wrong. I am going to make sure he goes down for this."

Gunning, now 19, had denied the charge of robbery but a jury of seven men and five women found him guilty following a trial in July.

At that hearing, Mr Kane said he was waiting near the bus stop on Princes Street, near the Euclid Street junction, when he saw Gunning, then 18, and a girl walking towards him.

When Gunning told him to stand in the bus shelter he said he did so.

He said: "He asked me the time and I told him it was 6.30pm. He started shouting and screaming at me. He was right up in my face, about six inches away. He asked me if I had any money."

Mr Kane said that he handed Gunning his full £1.20 bus fare.

At an earlier hearing, Gunning, of Keynsham Walk, Park South, admitted witness intimidation on May 19.

Penny Wilson, defending, said that a lot of the evidence of the victim was accepted, adding: "Mr Gunning was disputing that what he had done amounted to a robbery."

Jailing him Recorder, Christopher Clark QC, said: "The courts have said time and again that offences of street robbery must merit custodial sentences."