TWO fairground workers have been jailed for brutally attacking a man after threatening him with a replica gun for just £6 and a mobile phone.

Jason Davey and Carl Henderson were locked up for the late-night attack in Bridgwater in which the victim was hit on the head and kicked several times in the face.

The man turned round terrified when someone shouted “stop” to see two men, one pointing what looked like a handgun at him, Caroline Bolt, prosecuting, told Taunton Crown Court.

He was then smashed on the back of the head with the imitation firearm and booted in the face after falling to his knees in the incident at 3.30am in West Street on September 26 last year.

The victim suffered bruising and lacerations to his head, which needed surgical ‘gluing’.

Sentencing the pair, Judge Stephen O’Malley said the victim was in “very considerable fear” during the “violent and frightening incident” as he was unaware that the firearmwas not real.

Davey, 26, and Henderson, 20, were of no fixed abode at the time of the incident and gave their addresses in court as Exeter Prison.

Davey was jailed for four years for robbery and 18 months concurrently for possession of the imitation firearm, while Henderson was jailed for 2½ years for robbery.

Both had admitted the offences.

The court heard that the two had been drinking, but Davey, normally “a likeable and approachable young man” who had had a “difficult upbringing”, played the lead role and had a history of serious offending.

Henderson, who suffers from “personality disorders”, felt “remorse and anxiety about the victim”, the court was told.

Henderson and Davy, who had already spent around 200 days in custody, will be released halfway through their sentences.