TWO drug addicts who robbed a bookies in Bury armed with a six-inch knife and a hammer have won a reduction in their jail terms.

Justin Doyle, aged 35, of Walmesley Road, Bury, and Mark Anthony Warbrick, aged 32, of no known address, waited until the Coral betting shop on Bolton Road was empty before they pounced in December 2007.

Doyle, who was carrying the knife, jumped on the cash desk and demanded money while brandishing the blade. It was not until the manager opened the safe and handed over £400 that he noticed Warbrick was holding a hammer, London’s Criminal Appeal Court heard today, but it was never used.

Both men admitted robbery at Bolton Crown Court in May last year.

Doyle, who has a criminal record dating back 20 years, was handed an indefinite term of imprisonment for public protection (IPP), while Warbrick was jailed for four years.

IPP sentences, almost identical to life terms, are reserved for ‘dangerous’ offenders and those serving them can have no hope of being freed until they can convince the Parole Board they are no longer a threat to society.

Lord Justice Rix said Warbrick was the first of the pair to be arrested and he told police of Doyle’s involvement in the crime. He also claimed to only have received £30 of the haul, and a £100 drug credit.

The judge, sitting with Mr Justice Bean and Judge David Paget QC, also read from the shop manager’s victim impact statement, in which he said the incident had left him suffering from flashbacks and needing counselling.

After hearing argument from lawyers representing both men, the judge ruled that, although Doyle's life had been “blighted” by drugs, he had never resorted to violence in the past. He quashed Doyle’s open-ended sentence and replaced it with a conventional five-year jail term. He will be entitled to automatic release after serving half of that term.

Warbrick’s sentence was cut to three years.