A ROBBER who carried out a series of knifepoint thefts in one night has been jailed for five and a half years.

Thomas Kay held a knife to the throat of a taxi driver he had called to Radcliffe, robbed a man of his mobile phone in Prestwich, and attempted to rob a terrified passenger at the Metrolink station in Bury.

Mark Friend, prosecuting, told Bolton Crown Court how, at 8pm on April 24, Kay, who had his face covered, approached Joseph Nance on Ostrich Lane, Prestwich, produced a knife and demanded his mobile phone.

Then at 10.20pm the same evening Ashley Doherty was on the platform at the Metrolink station in Bury when he saw two men approaching him.

Wary, he moved to a different part of the platform, but then Kay walked up to him and demanded money.

“The complainant was terrified,” said Mr Friend, who added that Mr Doherty was frozen to the floor as Kay held out a knife telling his victim, “Get your wallet out. I am going to count to five.”

Mr Doherty ran off and was unharmed.

At 2.30am the next morning taxi driver Mohammed Ashraf received a call to collect passengers from Stand Lane, Radcliffe.

Kay and another man, Liam Truesdale got into the car and asked to be taken to Prestwich.

But Mr Friend said Mr Ashraf became suspicious when the two men kept glancing towards each other and he stopped the vehicle Scholes Lane, Prestwich.

“He suspected trouble was afoot,” Recorder Philip Parry told Kay.

“He thought you were going to run off and not pay for the taxi, but you did far, far worse than that.”

Kay, who was sitting behind the driver, pulled out a knife and held it to his throat asking: “Have you ever been robbed? Give me your money.”

The petrified driver handed over £65 and was told to take the car keys out of the ignition and throw them away.

The two men ran off towards flats at Beechcroft, Prestwich, and the driver was able to direct police there.

When the pair were arrested at the flat officers recovered Mr Nance’s mobile phone and the taxi driver’s cash.

The court heard that Kay has eight previous convictions for 15 offences, including robberies and causing grievous bodily harm.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of robbery, one of attempted robbery and three charges of possessing a knife in public.

Colin Buckle, defending, stressed that no one had been injured.

He added that, at the time of committing the crimes Kay, who has been treated for paranoid schizophrenia, had not been taking his medication.

But the court was told that a psychiatrist’s report concluded that Kay, who misused cannabis and alcohol, “gets a buzz out of violence” and will freely resort to using knives.

The psychiatrist stated that Kay, of Plover Drive, Bury, expressed no remorse for the crimes he had committed.

Recorder Parry concluded that Kay knew what he was doing on the night of the robberies.

“You have to grow out of this appalling behaviour,” he told Kay.

“You show a worrying tendency towards violence and carrying blades in public.”

He handed Kay an extended sentence for public protection comprised of five and a half years in jail plus a further three years on licence.

Truesdale, aged 25, of Greenings Court, Warrington was previously jailed for 32 months for the attempted robbery at the Metrolink station.