AN EX-SOLDIER admitted holding up the same bank in an armed robbery twice in nine years.

Alan Huggins, from Formby, first raided the Southport branch of Bradford & Bingley in 2000, before returning to the Chapel Street branch earlier this month.

Both times he held the same female cashier at gunpoint while he passed her a note demanding cash.

Yesterday he appeared before Liverpool Crown Court to plead guilty to seven charges of robbery, possession of an imitation firearm, theft and false identification.

During interviews with police, Huggins also admitted four other bank jobs in Merseyside and the south of England – which will be taken into consideration when he is sentenced next month.

It is understood that, after successfully making off with £860 in the 2000 raid, Huggins committed a string of four further bank raids across England before fleeing the UK for Thailand, where he has been lying low until last month.

Arriving back in the UK 36-year-old Huggins returned to his parents' home in Formby.

Police officers in Merseyside were made aware of his re-appearance by the UK Border Agency.

Before targeting the bank for the second time, Huggins stole £1,100 in travellers cheques from his father, Alan Huggins snr, at his home in Royal Crescent.

On November 3, he walked into Bradford & Bingley at 9am,and carried out a carbon copy of the robbery he had first committed nine years earlier.

Huggins was arrested less than two hours later after he was followed by police.