AN ARMED robber who tried to hold up a second hand clothes shop handed himself in at a police station after a media appeal was launched.

A manhunt was under way following Kaine Williams and Liam Stimpson's bungled but terrifying raid at Audosta in the Pill area of Newport.

Both had their hoods up and their faces covered and Stimpson was armed with knife which had a six-inch blade, Cardiff Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Harry Baker said: “An armed robbery with a knife happened at a second hand clothes store at Broad Street on November 8, 2019.

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“Two people entered with hoods over their heads and a knife was pointed at a member of staff.

“The victim was Lithuanian and she told them she didn’t understand and she screamed, ‘No money’.

“The two turned around and ran off empty-handed.”

Mr Baker said detectives found CCTV footage of the pair and a still was taken and released in a Gwent Police media appeal.

Ten days after the attempted robbery, Williams walked into a police station with his sister to confess his guilt.

The prosecutor said that he told police: “Stimpson was waving a knife around and said, ‘If you don’t come with me, I will slash you’.

“In the shop he shouted, ‘Empty the till or I will stick the knife in you’”.

Williams, 22, of Stow Hill, Newport and Stimpson, 20, of Uphill Road, Llanrumney, Cardiff, both pleaded guilty to attempted robbery.

Ben Waters, mitigating, said Williams had no previous convictions and was an “uneducated young man”.

Judge Richard Williams told Williams: “This was a planned robbery. It was not a sophisticated, well thought out or executed one. It was a total failure.

“Nonetheless, it was a serious offence. One of you was armed with a knife.

“You left empty-handed but a knife was produced and the victim threatened.

“The fact that you were armed makes no material difference.

“You handed yourself in at the police station when your identity was not yet established.”

He jailed Williams for two years.

Stimpson is due to be sentenced next month.