A KNIFE-WIELDING robber who terrified a man in his own home for the sake of £8 was today locked up for five years.

Darren Embleton was looking for a drug dealer at a flats complex when innocent Eric Kenny answered the communal door.

Embleton forced the tenant to knock on the doors of other residents while he held a kitchen knife with a six-inch blade to his neck.

When nobody answered any of the calls, drug-crazed Embleton forced Mr Kenny back into his flat and demanded money from him.

After handing over £8, Mr Kenny was warned that Embleton would return and seek revenge if he told anyone what had happened.

Teesside Crown Court heard that Embleton was arrested the following week but said his memory was hazy because of drugs.

The 36-year-old admitted going to the flats in Linthorpe Road, Middlesbrough, but denied having a knife with him when he went in.

Peter Wishlade, mitigating, said Embleton had taken crack cocaine for the first time in a long time on the day of the raid.

He said his client resorted to self-harm or committing crimes whenever he felt under pressure, and did so on February 10.

Mr Wishlade said Kenny once ripped off bandages from his stomach and pulled out his intestines to show him his wounds.

"That's the sort of person we are dealing with, unfortunately," Mr Wishlade told Judge Peter Armstrong.

"Regrettably, he does seem to cope better in an institution because he gets his medication and he takes his medication.

"When he is in the community, he forgets to take it and when he cannot cope with the pressures of life, he returns to drug abuse, self-harm and offending."

The court heard that Embleton, who has 57 offences on his record, was jailed for four years in 1995 for trying to rob a taxi driver of money.

In 2004, he was given a community punishment for three street robberies and witness intimidation, but breached the order and was locked up.

Embleton, of Park Road North, Middlesbrough, was released in August 2007, and had stayed out of trouble until the robbery of Mr Kenny, which he admitted.

Judge Armstrong told him: "You were doing all right until February 10 when, unfortunately, you seem to have reverted to taking crack cocaine.

"No doubt Mr Kenny was terrified, being threatened with being stabbed if he did not comply.

"Although it is not very much money, the serious aspect, of course, is that he was in his own home, being threatened by you with a knife."