A PUB worker who held an imitation gun to a six-year-old boy's head and threatened to shoot has been jailed for 12 months.

Steven Poggiani was convicted at Worcester Crown Court in August of possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.

Poggiani, 30, of East Street, Kidderminster, and formerly of Kimberlee Avenue, Cookley, admitted having ammunition at his home without a licence.

The jury was told that Poggiani had been drinking in August last year before he threatened the boy.

The prosecution said Poggiani was retaliating because his nephew had been frightened when the boy's father, Maurice Puttock, had fired a toy pistol into the air some months previously.

Dominic Bell, defending, submitted that it was "a domestic dispute between neighbours."

Recorder Michael Burrows said he accepted that the cache of ammunition found in a kitchen vent at Poggiani's home was left over from the days when he was a gamekeeper and he had not intended to use it.