A BRAVE teenager who tried to foil an armed robbery at the Malvern supermarket where he worked has been awarded £250 by a judge.

Sixteen-year-old Richard Preece was on duty at the Somerfield store in Barnards Green when two drug addicts came in and purchased a soft drink.

As one man lunged towards the open till, quick-thinking Richard shut it. But he was forced to reopen it when one of the men pulled out a 12-inch carving knife and threatened him with it.

As the men fled with £415 cash to a getaway car, he followed them and took down the registration number.

The former Chase pupil said: "I was pretty scared. When I started chasing them the adrenaline just started pumping but I thought if they're going to jump in the car, I'm going to get the registration number because I didn't want them to get away with it."

Judge David McEvoy QC said he had been "extremely courageous" and shown great presence of mind.

Last Friday Judge McEvoy sentenced the robbers, James Patterson, aged 22, of Bluebell Close, Malvern, and 33-year-old Mark Williams, of Duke of Edinburgh Way, Malvern, to five years jail each. They both admitted robbery.

Prosecutor Tim Sapwell told Worcester Crown Court that Richard was working at the store, managed by his mother, on December 6 last year when the robbers came in just before closing time at 9.45pm.

Mr Sapwell said the bungling robbers went to their getaway car but the driver - a female friend - was not there. They got back out and fled on foot.

The defendants had asked the woman earlier in the evening to drive them to the store after planning the robbery. She did not know they were about to commit a crime.

Later the same night, Patterson phoned the woman while she was being quizzed by police at her home.

Patterson talked to police and named Williams, lying that he had been kept in the dark about the robbery. He handed himself in six days later. Police found Williams hiding behind a sofa at his own home.

Williams, a father-of-two, had spent most of the last seven years in prison, said his counsel Martin Lanchester.

His offending since the age of 18 was linked to heroin and cocaine addiction. It included violence, break-ins, handling stolen goods and deception.

Gareth Walters, for Patterson, who had a record for shoplifting and burglary, said he was on heroin at the time and ashamed of the crime. He added: "They both went there to take part in the robbery and both are responsible for putting a 16-year-old in fear."

Richard said he was surprised but delighted to have been given the reward and said that he would put it towards a new car.