AN armed robber who sprayed a terrified female shop worker with petrol and threatened to shoot another in two late night raids has been given a 17-year jail term.

Masked career criminal Lee Bidmead was armed with an imitation handgun when he raided the Spar store in Portskewett, near Caldicot around 9.40pm on Sunday, March 20, 2016, and fled with £600.

But the 46-year-old, who was jailed for 11 and a half years for a shotgun robbery in 2006, left his DNA on the bottle holding the fuel, which he had discarded on the shop floor.

Newport Crown Court heard the heroin-using DJ had also raided a Spar store in Caerleon at 10.40pm nine days earlier, making off with £1,000 after throwing a female shop assistant to the floor and threatening to shoot her.

Bidmead, of no fixed abode but formerly from Cwmbran, was jailed for 13 years last Friday (April 27), with another four years to be served on licence, while accomplice Brian Butler, 49, of Radnor Road, Newport, was jailed for six years for supplying the finance and organising the hiring of a getaway car.

Jonathan Rees, prosecuting, told the court how Portskewett Spar shop worker Sarah Dalton was sprayed with petrol when Bidmead entered the Main Road store, and told her: “If you follow me or call the police, you are dead.”

She said: “He sprayed petrol all over me and placed a gun on the counter. I was more frightened it would be ignited and he would burn me.”

Mr Rees said tests of the fuel bottle discarded at the Portskewett Spar matched Bidmead’s DNA and an imitation Glock 17 handgun had his fingerprints and DNA on it.

Both men had denied two charges of robbery and Bidmead was also convicted of two charges of possessing an imitation firearm.

Ruth Smith, for Bidmead, said: “He has been suffering from an addiction to heroin — it has plagued his life.”

Judge Daniel Williams told Bidmead, who boasted about being a hardened criminal: “Big men do not terrorise vulnerable women working alone by pointing a gun at them and pouring petrol all over them.”

Detective Sergeant Matthew Edwards, who supervised the investigation, said: “These incidents were terrifying and distressing for all the victims involved. 

“During both incidents, staff were threatened with a firearm and the victim working in Portskewett had petrol squirted over her, before money was stolen.

DC Streeter added: “This series of robberies could have resulted in tragic consequences. 

“Having supported the victims throughout the investigation I’ve seen the impact the incidents have had, but also the sheer emotion that was evident when the guilty verdict was returned.”