A 15-year-old 'model pupil' has been sent to a young offenders institution for 40 months after he admitted robbing a bank with an imitation gun.
The teenager was said to have re-enacted a 'real-life video game' to steal £2,000 from a branch of Barclays in Liverpool.
But the boy was brought to justice – by his mum. She found dye-stained cash and a fake firearm in his bedroom and handed her 'top set' son over to police.
At a previous hearing, Debra Chan, prosecuting, said the teen had walked into the bank armed with a black BB handgun, or air gun, and went up to one of the cashiers.
He had said, 'I'm not messing around', before handing over a bag.He said, 'Fill that up with money', adding: 'Don't do anything stupid. I've just got out of prison after five years'.
The cashiers filled the bag with a 'dummy bundle' which is designed to detonate and spray dye over the cash when it leaves the building.
After finding the money and the gun, the teenager's mum gathered her family together and placed the items on the coffee table in the living room and asked her son where they had come from.
The boy immediately admitted what he had done and the family took him to the police.
After his arrest the teenager said he carried out the robbery because he was envious of other people's material possessions.
At Liverpool Youth Court, District Judge Ian Lomax said: "It's a bizarre, surreal case of a young man almost acting like a real-life action video game."
He referred the case to Liverpool Crown Court, where the boy was ordered to be detained at a young offenders institute for 40 months.