An armed robber who used website Gumtree to target a couple and threaten to shoot them in their own home has been jailed for two years.

Awhan Edani posed as a buyer for two iPhones listed on the online classifieds site but, when he met the sellers at their Surbiton home on November 3, last year, he pulled out a black handgun and threatened to shoot them.

The 21-year-old from Harrow told the couple he had an envelope of money to pay them and, on being offered a plastic bag to put the phones in, threatened them at gunpoint, Kingston Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Leasha Whawell said: “The defendant told the couple not to move and to put the phones into the bag. He said ‘I don’t want to shoot you, just give me the bag’.

“The couple said they were frozen in terror. He said ‘if you move I will shoot you’.”

The court heard that at 7.30pm on the same day, Edani sold the two mobiles to a Harrow phone shop for £958.

Defending, Daniel Cummins said Edani had suffered from depression for some time due to financial difficulties and a girlfriend who was not accepted by his family.

He said: “He is a very polite, personable young man, it is completely in contrast to the man on this particular occasion.”

Edani was sentenced on Tuesday, March 6, to two-and-a-half years for two counts of robbery and one of possession of a firearm or imitation firearm.

Addressing Edani, His Honourable Judge Paul Dodson said: “I am quite sure that you know full well how stupid you have been.

"You must have terrified these people and it was in their home, albeit just at the threshold.

“They really must have been terrified. These are serious offences.”

Police said they were able to identify Edani within three hours of the crime because the phone’s IMEI numbers were reported straight away.

Detective Constable Mike Shellard said: “One armed robber off the streets, two stolen phones which will be returned to their original owner, and an efficient use of police time, was all made possible by CEX’s speedy logging of the IMEI numbers on the NMPR and some excellent police work by Kingston based CID.”