A Shanghai court has sentenced a man to 12 years in prison for robbing a woman of 37,750 yuan (4,933 U.S. dollars) using a toy gun.

Wei Qinghua was also fined 15,000 yuan by the Jiading District People's Court.

The court said Wei entered a bank in Jiading District on the morning of July 19, 2007 and waited for a target to rob.

Around 9:00 a.m., Wei noticed a woman leaving alone with the cash she had just withdrawn. He followed her until there was no one else around, took out the toy gun and held it against her waist. He then grabbed her cash and escaped on a motorcycle.

The woman, surnamed Yang, had 37,750 yuan in her bag. But Wei just took 30,000 yuan and threw the bag and the toy gun away on the road.

The police apprehended him two days later and subsequently found the bag, with the remaining 7,750 yuan inside, on the road. Wei said he had spent some of the money to pay off debts and buy himself a cell phone.

He still had 17,000 yuan and police returned that money, plus the retrieved cash, to Yang.

(Xinhua News Agency January 3, 2008)