RICHARD Habgood took one look at the gun the drug fuelled robber was holding and decided it was a replica. He was so sure he was right he decided to tackle the young robber. His gamble paid off although Richard was left covered in blood as the robber hit him with the weapon.

It happened at a quiet Hampshire convenience store and the full story emerged during the trial of the troubled young lad who carried out the attack.

The court heard that Richard had ran to the store, opposite the post office in Lowfrod near Bursledon where he works after hearing what was happening. He knew his wife was in the shop.

He quickly realised the gun Pearce was holding was not loaded.Reliving the ordeal, he told the Daily Echo: "He was very aggressive. He was doing a good impression of Bruce Willis.

"I realised the gun didn't have a magazine clip. I knew it wasn't a real one.

"He went bounding up to the cashier adopting a gangster pose, saying give me the cash'. The lady behind the till said you'll have to wait I'm serving a customer' which I think startled him."

Mr Habgood added: "I grabbed his arm and pulled it away then we had a wrestling match to get him outside the shop.

"There were arms flayling but I managed to bundle him outside. He did try to shoot me with the gun. I saw him pull the trigger, but once he realised it didn't work he started hitting me with it.

"I hit him in the stomach to make him stop and he ran off."

Mr Habgood, who runs the Bursledon post office, was working in his newly opened chip shop in the same premises on a Saturday evening, when a customer told him about the young gunman.

His wife had already gone over the road to the One Stop so he dashed after her.

He said: "I just wasn't going to let this lad do what he was trying to do. If it was real gun I probably wouldn't have done anything. It would have taken my head off.

Prosecutor Louise Gray told Southampton Crown Court how another young man had earlier pulled up in a car outside the One Stop shop and was threatened by Pearce as he got out.

Ms Gray said Pearce was waving the gun in a "gangster style", pointed it at the man and said: "Do you think I'm joking?"

Pearce was later arrested by armed police when they surrounded a house where he had been partying with pals. He had made a lengthy confession to the police control room by dialling 999 and saying: "I want to give myself up. I'm handing myself in."

Pearce was charged with and pleaded guilty to possession of an imitation firearm with intent, attempted robbery, assault by beating and racial abuse that caused distress and alarm.

Mr Habgood said: "I don't like to see young people's lives get messed up but when they represent such a threat to society they deserve to be locked up."

James Pearce, now 17, of Vaughan Close, Southampton, had 23 convictions over the past three years including actual bodily harm, burglary, arson, criminal damage, car theft.

Michael Butt, for Pearce, said anger and frustration at dysfunctional relationships that mattered to him at the time had proved to be a "explosive combination" for Pearce.

Passing sentence Judge Derwen Hope said he was in no doubt Pearce posed a significant risk of harm to the public.

He handed the youth a six-year extended sentence, four of which will be spent in custody.