TWO robbers who held up a student on a major York road at 1am and took his hoodie and other belongings “for the hell of it” have been jailed for nearly four years each.

Simon Kealey, prosecuting, said between them, the pair grabbed the victim from behind, poked a sharp object in his neck and threatened to injure him on Huntington Road last October.

One was wearing a balaclava and the other was wearing a hoodie and a scarf. They told the victim they had been watching him “for a while”.

Curtis Kenneth Turpin, 26, had only months before been released from a prison sentence for another street mugging and Daniel Christopher Ward, 34, had more than 100 previous convictions including robbing a Blockbuster video outlet.

Recorder Simon Myerson QC told them of their latest crime: “This is a predatory offence. People must be able to walk the streets of their city without fear that you are going to threaten and rob them just for the hell of it.”

Both men admitted robbery and have no fixed address. Turpin was jailed for three years and nine months, Ward for three years and 11 months.

Mr Kealey said police later found a knife and a balaclava in Ward’s bedroom and the student’s headphones in Turpin’s bedroom. They also traced his phone to a second-hand shop.

For Ward, Jon Gregg said he was ashamed of his actions.

Since being remanded in custody shortly after the robbery, he had become a mentor to fellow prisoners studying health and safety and food hygiene and had taken a course in running a business as he intended to earn a living working for himself on his release.

For Turpin, Taryn Turner said although he had family in York, he planned to move away from the city, possibly to Bradford on release to start a new life away from the people he had been mixing with.

He had misused alcohol and drugs in the past and was on medication in prison.