A drinks giant has defended its decision to send a group of friends on a dream holiday as a reward for staging a mock armed robbery.

The 17-year-olds are off to the Maldives next week after scooping first prize in a Fanta competition which asked entrants to film how they have fun.

Tamsin Spong, 17, of Westleigh Avenue, Leigh, and her pals won over the judges of the Fanta/Sugar magazine competition with their zany newsagents' robbery.

The girls put tights on their heads and went to a corner shop with Lego guns demanding the store's collection of Fanta - with the owner's consent.

The 20-minute video also showed the girls washing their hair in Fanta, partying with the drink and pretending to have a domestic argument with a can of the popular refreshment.

A spokesman for Coca Cola, which owns Fanta, said the entry was picked for its imagination.

He said: "This was supposed to be a spoof of Charlie's Angels or Mission Impossible. It was a humorous attempt to rescue their favourite drink and that is how it should be seen.

"As a responsible company we obviously condemn all acts of violence and criminality."

One of the girl's mothers said: "This was quite obviously a group of girls having a good time. They are young girls, not adults walking around with guns. All of the things they did were taking the mickey. "

The girls will spend a week on Fanta Island.

Good fun? - Leah and Tamsin Spong and Starrisha Bowrage re-enact the mock armed robbery that won them a trip to the Maldives

Picture: ROBIN WOOSEY

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