A THUG nicknamed "The Terminator" by a prosecutor because of his resemblance to Arnold Schwarzenegger's film character, was jailed last week after his attempt to pull a prank on a corner shopkeeper spectacularly backfired.

Giant James Hill and a pal, Shuan Russell, entered Iftikhar Ahmed's shop with hoods over their faces and a small toy baseball bat.

They demanded money before Hill, 32, pulled down his mask and told Mr Ahmed, 54, that he had been "joking".

But police had already been called, and Hill was arrested.

Hill appeared for sentence at Falkirk Sheriff Court last Thursday after pleading guilty to committing a breach of the peace by entering the A and A Mini Market in Alloa with his face masked, and demanding money.

The incident occurred in September 2015.

Hill, of Alloa, had originally been charged with armed robbery, but the Crown accepted his guilty plea to the lesser offence. All charges against Russell, 25, relating to the incident were earlier dropped.

The court was told that the baseball bat, which Russell, of Alloa, had in his hand, was only 12 inches long.

Virgil Crawford, defending, said the entire incident was caught on CCTV.

He said: "He goes into the shop with his hood on, but very quickly he takes down his hood, purchases some cigarettes, puts the money into the charity tin, and leaves.

"But he would accept that what he did at the outset, while he was doing it for a laugh, did amount to a breach of the peace."

The court heard that Hill was already serving an 18 month sentence, imposed the week before, for assaulting a middle-aged civil servant in his Stirling home.

Sheriff Craig Caldwell jailed him for a further 10 months, to run consecutive to the Stirling sentence, for the Alloa "joke". He said that as far as he was concerned, it was at the upper end of the scale for a breach of the peace.

He said: "You went into this shop with your face masked, and the other person had a small weapon. You demanded money from the shopkeeper, before realising the error of your ways and claiming that you were joking.

"It must have been a very frightening experience for the shopkeeper, whose wife, I understand, was also present."

In the incident in Stirling, which occurred in November 2016, Hill turned on Roderick Grindlay, 53, after the older man met him in a nightclub and invited him home to share a £40 bottle of whisky.

They sat up for four hours sampling the malt and listening to music, but when it was nearly dawn, Mr Grindlay decided Hill should leave and stood up and said it was "time for bed".

Hill, who was high on alcohol and cocaine and was said to have a "horrendous" record for violence, launched what Stirling Sheriff Court was told was an "outrageous, disgusting" assault, partially severing his victim's earlobe.

Prosecutor Sarah Lumsden told jurors, who took just 45 minutes to find Hill guilty after a three-day trial: "Look at him – he is built like The Terminator."