A POLITE gunman who apologised to staff at a Radcliffe building society office after robbing them of £1,600 was jailed for six years at Bolton Crown Court on Thursday. "I'm sorry, I don't usually do things like this," Anthony White (28), of Butterstile Lane, Prestwich, told staff at the Alliance and Leicester as he was leaving with his loot.

Later, after his arrest for the robbery, he wrote a letter to the staff of the branch again apologising for his crime, Tim Brennand, defending, told the court.

White pleaded guilty to the robbery when he appeared in court.

Mr Ian Metcalfe, prosecuting, said White went into the branch on Tuesday, August 27 this year with a hood pulled over his face and brandishing what appeared to be a handgun.

He menaced two women cashiers in turn, forcing them to hand over a total of £1,600 in bank notes before leaving with his apology to the staff.

A few days later, police went to White's home where they found a shopping list of luxury items and receipts for purchases totalling £1,371, Mr Metalfe said.

Mr Brennand said the case was an illustration of the abject misery of a heavy drugs user who resorted to crime to pay for his habit which was costing him between £200 and £300 a day at the time of the offence.

He said White had been put up to the robbery by his drugs supplier who had driven him to Radcliffe and had provided him with the imitation handgun he used in the robbery.

Judge Michael Lever said he was not interested in the claim that White was in debt to a drugs dealer as an explanation of the crime but he acknowledged that White had the courage to plead guilty.

"Every judge in the country knows that these small building society branches, staffed almost exclusively by women, are particularly vulnerable to this kind of robbery," he stated.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.