Chef thought he was going to die in robbery at Mid Wales restaurant

The gun was also used to strike the victim several times to the head and he was forced to hand over his bank details.

The robbery happened at the staff quarters of the Bengali Brassiere, in Llanidloes High Street, Mid Wales, in the early hours of July 26 this year.

Mold Crown Court heard how £6,000 was transferred from the victim's account electronically and the raider also took his wallet containing £580.

The raider attempted to tie up his victim with plastic ties but he bravely fought back fearing he was about to be killed.

His attacker fled – but not before the victim had managed to pull his balaclava off.

He then recognised him as a 17-year-old youth who he knew from the Yardley area of Birmingham.

The victim was left covered in blood and a judge said pictures of him on the stairs after the attack were "horrible."

Judge Rhys Rowlands imposed a four-year sentence of detention on the youth, who cannot be publicly identified, after he admitted robbery with an imitation firearm.

The judge warned that if he had been an adult then he would have received a sentence of 12 years or more after a trial.

Describing the robbery, prosecutor Emmalyne Downing said that chef Mohammed Shamsuloslam was lying on his bed watching TV at about 2.30am when the door opened and a man dressed in black with a balaclava and gloves entered.

He had a gun, told him "No shout" and hit him very hard several times to the head with the bottom of the gun.

The raider said "If you shout I will kill you" and said his wife and children "are with my mates".

Miss Downing said the victim was forced to hand over his mobile, go into his mobile banking and give his PIN. A total of £6,000 was transferred to the account of another man, and the cash in the wallet was taken.

The victim only handed over the wallet after the youth threatened to kill him.

When the raider started to tie him up, the victim defended himself, grabbed the gun which was on the bed and hit him with it. He also hit his attacker with a chair.

He pulled off the mask and recognised his attacker.

The victim later told police he thought the gun was real, believed he was going to be killed and begged the defendant not to kill him.

He had been left with numerous injuries including a long lasting shoulder injury and the experience meant that he was no longer the happy and confident man he was.

Bob Sastry, defending, said his client was young, rather immature and whose family had moved to try and keep him on the straight and narrow because of the company he was keeping.

Judge Rolands said that it was "an extremely serious robbery" and if he was an adult he would receive a very long sentence indeed.

He had paid to take a taxi a considerable distance from Birmingham to Llanidloes, asked the driver to wait, and later got him to take him to a hospital for his injuries to be treated.

The defendant had a mask, an imitation pistol of some sort, serious threats had been made and he had struck his victim several times.

"He thought understandably that he was going to be killed," the judge said.

"Photographs later showed him literally covered in blood. It has had a profound effect upon him."

The teenager had no previous convictions, but the judge told him: "This was on any view a planned robbery in which an imitation gun was used to threaten and to inflict significant violence."

The court heard the bank had since returned the money which had been transferred out of the account and the judge ordered that £600 found on the defendant on his arrest should be used to compensate the victim.