A BEGGAR has been detained at a psychiatric hospital after he fired a BB gun at terrified discount store staff.

Portuguese national, Bruno Melo Avila, 32, had been begging outside the Home and Bargains store on Newport Street in Bolton town centre, when he was asked to leave by staff.

He then acquired the gun before riding his bike towards two members of staff and firing at them narrowly missing hitting one woman in the head.

At Bolton Crown Court, Rick Holland, prosecuting, said on June 3 last year, Avila was asked not to sit on a basket belonging to the store while he was begging.

An argument began and Avila threw a plastic bottle at a member of staff before he was asked to leave the area outside the shop by the store manager.

Around 30 minutes later, Avila rammed his bicycle into the front door of the shop and sat on the floor inside, the court was told.

Avila was spotted going into a newsagents before emerging and riding his bike towards the entrance of the store where the manager and a female member of staff were standing.

When he was about four metres away he aimed the gun at them and fired, narrowly missing the woman.

Mr Holland said Avila then rode away before returning and firing again, hitting the store manager in the chest and then again on his lower torso.

He was arrested a short time later and found in possession of the gun with pellets in the chamber.

A firearms officer said the gun was spring-loaded and capable of firing ball-bearings around 6mm in diameter.

In a victim impact statement, the female member of staff, said: “I’m not an expert and I wasn’t to know if this was a real gun or not.

“I shouldn’t have to come to work and be frightened in this way because I didn’t know how far this male was going to take things and this scared me.

“I would have been terrified on my own with him still hanging about.”

Avila was released on bail following the incident, but did not answer and was arrested in Bristol the following September.

Huw Edwards, defending, said Avila, of Furzehill, Chard, Somerset, had been in custody at HMP Forest Bank for six months.

“These are challenging times to be in custody,” said Mr Edwards.

“The experts seem to agree that he is suffering from psychosis and they recommend a hospital order under Section 37 of the Mental Health Act.”

Sentencing Avila, who pleaded guilty to possession of an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, Judge Graeme Smith, said: “It is difficult enough in the current environment to carry our ones job without being presented with the circumstances that arose from your activities.

“Although it was only an imitation firearm it had the capability to cause serious injury of a pellet hit someone in the eye.

“You have developed significant symptoms of a psychotic illness in custody and I believe it is appropriate for you to be detained in a hospital for medical treatment.”

Judge Smith confirmed that a place was available for Avila at Callington Road Hospital in Bristol.