A ROBBER who went straight for a year lapsed into his old habit after losing his job, a court heard.

Kevin Hardwick, who raided a filling station late at night after forcing his way into the forecourt shop, was yesterday jailed for four-and-a-half years.

Durham Crown Court heard that the female attendant at the Jet station, in Redworth Road, Shildon, saw someone running across the forecourt late on September 30 last year.

The door was locked but a man, wearing a balaclava, broke a pane of glass in the door and climbed through, before approaching the terrified assistant at the counter.

Stephen Duffield, prosecuting, said the man, who was carrying what appeared to be a piece of copper piping, took hold of her arm and said: "Give us your money, I'm not going to hurt you."

He told her to kneel down and open the till, from which he took £729, before he made off in an old BMW car, which had been bought locally that afternoon.

Mr Duffield said clothes found by police near Hardwick's home were linked to the robbery after forensic tests.

Hardwick was arrested two days later and denied involvement in the raid. But the garage assistant remembered Hardwick's girlfriend had been in the shop earlier on the night of the robbery and had showed a "curious interest" in the till.

The court heard that Hardwick was released early, in September 2002, from a five-year prison sentence imposed for his part in an armed robbery at a Newton Aycliffe social club in which £4,339 was taken.

Euan Duff, mitigating, said he managed to find a job on his release and also took action to wean himself off drugs.

Mr Duff said: "Unhappily the job came to an end, through a shortage of work, and financial pressures built up.

"It was this combination which caused him to take this desperate act."

Hardwick, 25, of Wharton Street, Coundon, admitted robbery and possession of ten Ecstasy tablets, which were found at his home when he was arrested.

Imposing the four-and-a-half-year prison term, a year of which is outstanding from his previous sentence, Judge Richard Lowden told Hardwick: "This was a terrifying offence for that assistant."