A STREET robber who snatched a mobile phone and handbag from a woman who had lost her friend during a night out has been jailed for three years.

Tony Marron grabbed the handset from Sarah Abbott, 24, as she was trying to call her friend after the pair had been separated in Middlesbrough town centre.

Teesside Crown Court was told yesterday that 21-year-old Marron has seven previous convictions for robbery and attempted robbery - mostly against teenage boys.

Marron's sentence will not begin until next April because he is already in prison after being recalled for breaching conditions of his release from an earlier three-year sentence.

Judge Les Spittle said he did not consider the robber to be a significant danger to the public despite his criminal record and the fact that his victims were all vulnerable.

The court heard how Marron struck at 2.30am on February 4 when Miss Abbott was walking through a cut near Borough Road after leaving a nightclub.

Graeme Gaston, prosecuting, said that the father-of-one was arrested nearby after his victim gave police a description, but in interview denied being at the scene.

The court heard that among his previous robberies was an attack in which he jumped out from behind bushes to shove a 12-year-old boy off his bike and steal it.

Marron also stole a phone from a boy on his way to school in the Grove Hill area after saying: "Give me it or I'll knock you out. Give me it, or I'll stab you."

John Gillette, mitigating, said all but two of Marron's crimes involved threats, rather than actual violence and he never used or produced a weapon.

Marron, of Wellington House, Middlesbrough, admitted robbery.