Elderly man jailed after holding up Yorkshire coffee shop with a toy gun

Caffe Nero staff in York feared for their lives when Gary Maddison, 65, told a terrified manager: "I'm going to kill you." York Crown Court heard an assistant manager 'thought she was going to die' when he pointed the small silver pistol at her and pulled the trigger.

Prosecutor Rob Galley said terrified staff at the coffee chain were unsure whether the weapon was real or not as customers looked on in horror. Maddison walked into shop at 12.15pm on January 20 last year and sat down next to a woman.

He put his feet on the table, started arguing with staff and became "obnoxious" and verbally abusive, the court heard. He falsely claimed that one of them had stolen his bank card and demanding a free drink.

The commotion alerted the assistant manager who heard Maddison shouting and swearing at staff and asked him to leave. Another staff member picked up Maddison's bag from the table and placed them on the doorstep, the court heard.

The staff member noticed the imitation firearm which felt very light, but he was concerned that it "might propel something like a bullet".

He escorted him out of the shop, but Maddison continued swearing at staff, refused to leave and shouted: "I'm going to kill you."

When confronted by the staff member, Maddison told him: "This is going to be your last breath."

The assistant manager and the staff member went outside to ask Maddison to leave, but he pulled out what they thought was an imitation firearm.

As Maddison pulled the trigger, the manager "thought she was going to die", before realising it wasn't a real gun, the court heard.

Maddison told her "I'm going to kill you on Monday" before fleeing the scene into a nearby shop.

Mr Galley added: "He was detained shortly afterwards by police (and) the gun was recovered."

He said Maddison had earlier walked up to an off-duty police officer and told him there was "a gunman in York", then added: "It's me!"

Maddison then took out a toy gun from his bag and told the officer he had bought it from a joke shop. The off-duty officer told him not to brandish it in front of members of the public as "they may think it was real".

Maddison was charged with carrying an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence and two counts of making a threat to kill. He admitted possessing the firearm with intent but denied making threats to kill.

The prosecution ultimately accepted these pleas and Maddison was jailed for 12 months on Wednesday (Feb 5).

In a victim statement read out to the court, the assistant manager said she had since moved to another shop to avoid seeing Maddison again.

She said her anxiety had since "got a lot worse" and she had even changed her bus route into the city centre.

Maddison had a rap sheet of 80 previous convictions for 150 offences including damaging property, theft and public disorder, the court heard.

One of his previous convictions was for possessing an imitation firearm 20 years ago, when it was "tucked in his waistband", it was heard.

In 2015, he was given a mental-health disposal after being convicted of arson.

Defence barrister Nicholas Hammond said Maddison hadn't been taking his medication for mental-health issues at the time of the "frightening" incident.

Judge Simon Hickey told Maddison his gun-wielding antics had terrified staff and customers who may not have realised initially that the weapon was fake.