A masked robber who threatened to slash shop staff with a knife was jailed for four years yesterday.

Norman Stanley Davies, 24, of Dundas Street, Stockton, admitted two charges of robbery at Teesside Crown Court.

Aisha Wadoodi, prosecuting, said a woman was working in her newsagent's shop, in Stockton, on January 22 when two men came in and started behaving strangely.

The woman felt uneasy and started to ring her husband to see if he would come to the shop, said Miss Wadoodi. As she was doing this, the men approached her and she asked if she could help.

Miss Wadoodi said the first man said: "Yes, I want the money out of the till." The second man, the defendant, started arguing with her and banged on the till.

The defendant then tried to open the till, said Miss Wadoodi, while the woman rang the police.

Davies produced what the woman described as a black leather implement, which she thought was a knife, the court heard.

He used this to get the till open and pulled the phone from her hand, said Miss Wadoodi. A total of £130 was stolen.

The second robbery took place on January 23, at a general dealer's store, in Hardwick.

Miss Wadoodi said Davies went into the shop at 6.50pm, wearing a ski mask, but two members of staff grabbed hold of him and pulled off the mask.

He said: "I'll slash you" and the people in the shop saw that he had a knife. Davies ran off, having stolen £5 from the till.

The next day, said Miss Wadoodi, Davies walked into Stockton police station and handed himself in. He said he wanted to go to prison so he could get off heroin.

Nigel Soppitt, in mitigation, said his client was addicted to heroin at the time but had taken a cocktail of drugs including crack cocaine, heroin and valium.

He said Davies was appalled by what he had done and had never intended to hurt anyone.

Davies had only been at liberty for six months of the past five years, having been in jail for the rest of the time.