Occasionally pinched brass or tin item for sucker (3,5)
I believe the answer is:
ice lolly
'tin item for sucker' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.
'occasionally pinched brass' is the wordplay.
'occasionally' means one should take alternating letters.
'brass' becomes 'lolly' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
The alternate letters of 'pinched' are 'ice'.
'ice'+'lolly'='ICE-LOLLY'
'or' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for ice lolly that I've seen before include "Frozen confection" , "cold sweet" , "'Frozen sweet on a stick (3,5)'" , "What young sucker preferred" , "summer treat" .)