A KNIFE-WIELDING robber who led a prisoners' conspiracy to blacken the name of his victim was today beginning a seven-year jail term.

Jason Francis Smith, dubbed a "professional criminal", was brought before the courts after a botched raid on the Tote Bookmaker's in Bootham, York.

A York Crown Court jury heard how the 28-year-old slashed the face of trainee manager Darren White as he terrified him into revealing where the shop's cash was held.

But the bookmaker teamed up with a customer to stop him escaping with a fistful of loot in November last year.

In court, Smith claimed Mr White was a "fence" - a person who handled stolen goods for profit - and got his prison mates Marvin Higgins and Daniel Eden to claim he had property from them.

But the jury took less than an hour to convict him of attempted robbery.

The Honorary Recorder of York, Judge Paul Hoffman, told Smith: "You prey on others. You have done so for years and you will carry on doing it long after you are a free man.

"You terrified the complainant (Mr White). You tried to wriggle out of it by resorting to a pack of lies and tried to blacken his name.

"Fortunately, the jury has seen through you and through your witnesses. This time it's seven years."

Speaking after the sentence, Detective Constable Duncan Thackray, of York CID, said: "He is a professional criminal who has got progressively worse.

"He carries weapons and is prepared to use them to commit crimes. He is a dangerous man. I hope this sentence will act as a deterrent to him and to others."

Smith, of Doherty Walk, Foxwood, York, denied attempted robbery. He had previously admitted shoplifting clothes from New Look, Blake Street, on the day of the raid.

It is the second time Smith has been jailed for a knife crime in the city.

In June 1998, he was jailed for five years after he and an accomplice held up a bank manager at knifepoint.

He took the victim's wedding ring and bank cards before bundling him into the boot of a car for several hours. At times the bank manager struggled for breath before he was released.

In December, 2003, shopkeepers fed up by his constant thieving shop raids made him the first person to be banned for life from 205 stores in York.

But at court Smith revealed how he continued to live off crime and shoplifting.

His criminal career started when he was 14 and now includes ten robberies and three offences of carrying knives in public.

Updated: 10:14 Tuesday, March 15, 2005