A Royal Bank of Scotland cashier who secretly planned a robbery with an accomplice has been jailed for two years.

Mazahir Abbas Sheikh was a staff member at an Edinburgh branch of the bank when he teamed up with Kerr Somerville to plot the raid and steal almost £8000.

The 38-year-old tried to protect Somerville by pointing out other men in an identity parade following the robbery.

Sheikh initially denied conspiring with Somerville to commit the theft at the Craigentinny Avenue branch, stealing £7829 and attempting to pervert the course of justice by failing to identify Somerville.

He changed his plea to guilty on the fourth day of his trial last month, however.

Somerville claimed in the trial that Sheikh approached him with a scheme to rob the bank in the months leading up to the raid on October 13, 2014.

Defence agent Victoria Good told Sheriff Alistair Noble at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Monday that her client had never been involved with the police or courts system before.

She said: "His wife and children are the most important people to him and he is very, very anxious about what will happen."

Sheriff Noble told Sheikh he had no choice but to jail him for the offence.

He said: "In your case it was a breach of trust. You conspired to steal from your employers and you attempted to pervert the course of justice by lying to the police that the robbery had been committed by someone you didn't know."

Somerville, who pleaded guilty to stealing the money while acting with another last year, was jailed for ten months for his involvement in the raid.