A machete-welding robber was jailed for 13 years yesterday for holding up a post office.

Armed robber Thomas Michael Reay, 21, of Joan Street, Newcastle, was jailed at Teesside Crown Court for holding up the store in Hamsterley Colliery, near Consett, County Durham on January 2 last year.

He was found guilty by a jury at Newcastle Crown Court last year.

The court heard Reay and accomplice Robert Ingham, 28, of Derwent Crescent Estate, Hamsterley Colliery, had gone into the shop brandishing blades and wearing masks.

Eric Turner, 71, a former Derwentside district councillor had arrived at his family-run shop to fund his wife and daughter at the mercy of Ingham and Reay.

He picked up a 4ft drain rod and managed to push Reay, who was brandishing a machete at the pensioner, off the counter where he was standing, but the pair still managed to get away with £2,000.

Ingham was previously jailed for six-and-a-half years after pleading guilty. Prosecutor Alec Burns told the court Reay had also pleaded guilty to an attempted robbery of a Newcastle jeweller's which happened two days after the Post Office raid.

He said the owner of Kopecky and Elliott in the city's Collinwood Street, was placing items into the window but the door was locked when three masked men smashed the lock off the door with a truncheon and one of the men repeatedly struck Richard Elliott.

Mr Elliott, he said, managed to disarm the man and hit Reay on the head with the truncheon. Reay then punched Mr Elliott in the face, knocking him to the floor.

The three ran off empty-handed, but left the truncheon, which had Reay's blood on it. He was traced through DNA. Mr Burns said Reay had an extensive criminal record, including two further robberies, one which involved violence against a taxi driver and had 416 days of unexpired license to serve from a previous sentence.

Shaun Routledge, for Reay, said the 21-year-old still had a future and was an intelligent man.

He said Reay was institutionalised having been a "professional criminal" but was undertaking courses and work in prison. He urged the judge not to take the sentencing option of life imprisonment, which he was entitled to do, as there was still hope.

Judge Peter Bowers jailed Reay for 12 years and ordered he serve one year of outstanding license consecutively.

He also placed Reay on an extended license period of five years on his release.

Judge Bowers said: "That is a substantial sentence for someone of your age."