Pensioner John Keyes has been found guilty of trying to raid a branch of the NatWest bank.

But jurors at Oxford Crown Court found the 68-year-old, of Hockmore Tower, Cowley, not guilty of attempted robbery at Lloyds at Carfax and Barclays in Cornmarket, Oxford, in the half hour before he went to NatWest in George Street, Oxford.

Adrian Higgins, prosecuting, told the court Keyes, who has lived in Oxford for 20 years, had a record for theft stretching back to 1948. He has numerous convictions for theft throughout the 1950s and 1960s and was jailed for a year for stealing during the 1970s.

Judge MaryJane Mowat adjourned sentencing for reports.

She thanked the jury and said: "That was an unusual case and not, perhaps, an easy one to deal with."

During the trial, the jury heard Keyes had drunk eight pints in The Mitre in High Street, Oxford, before embarking on his crime. At Lloyds Bank, at which Keyes was found not guilty of attempted robbery, staff thought the situation was funny. He had asked a member of staff to tell the police he had done a robbery, but was escorted out of the bank instead.

Giving evidence, Keyes, who denied all three charges, said he could not remember his bungled attempt at crime due to his alcohol intake. But during an interview at St Aldate's police station, he said he did it for a laugh.

WPc Angel Murray, who was called to NatWest, where Keyes was grabbed by a customer, told the jury when she arrived he was sitting in an armchair laughing hysterically.

She said: "I heard him say that he had only done it for a laugh and he hadn't got a gun really. His speech was slurred.

"He said 'I want to be arrested. Look at all this excitement. I love it.'"

The court heard Keyes has suffered depression in the past and spent time in the Warneford Hospital in Headington, Oxford.

He will be sentenced on November 13. The judge told him she was not ruling out a custodial sentence, but that all options were open.

Keyes was released on bail on condition he lives at home and reports to police twice a week.

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