A RAIDER escaped with thousands of pounds from a bank - after holding up a cashier with a wooden coat-hanger.

Anthony Turner walked into a police station minutes later, and said: "I've done a robbery and here's the money."

Stunned officers found £5,000 stuffed into a carrier bag and arrested the 30-year-old, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Turner told police he wrapped the coat-hanger in a scarf to make it look like the handle of a gun. The cashier from HSBC on Stockton High Street said she was petrified and has since had counselling.

Judge Michael Taylor told Turner: "You had what appeared to be, to the lady behind the counter, a weapon in disguise.

"She was very frightened by what she saw, and responded to your request to hand over money.

"You escaped, but later had the good sense to realise that what you had done was stupid, and you handed yourself in."

Turner, of Rimswell Road, Stockton, was jailed for two years after admitting the July 17 robbery.

Peter Kilgour, mitigating, described the raid as "spur of the moment" and said: "There were a number of stress factors applicable at that time on Mr Turner's life - perhaps an unusual number of them.

"That led him to, for some reason, take leave of his senses temporarily. He doesn't take what he did lightly.

"He is fully aware of the effect it had on the cashier, and he is extremely remorseful for what he put her through."

Judge Taylor told Turner: "The reason you say you committed this offence was because you were in debt.

"It may be that it was spur of the moment and you were in debt, but you caused terror to that young woman."