A MAN who tried to rob a York bookmakers' at knifepoint has been jailed for more than four years.

Sam Mason, 26, of Escrick Street near Fishergate in York, targeted the Coral bookmakers in Beckfield Lane in Acomb on June 30.

Mason, armed with a red-handled knife, entered the premises where a woman was working alone, said Rob Galley, prosecuting.

However, the robbery was interrupted by another man and Mason fled the scene, discarding items of clothing in a nearby garden.

Sentencing him at York Crown Court, Recorder Simon Jackson QC said: "This would have been a very frightening ordeal for the woman, who was on her own behind the counter.

"You had planned this. You had a hoody, you had covered your face, you had purchased a knife the day before.

"This is on the back of one of the most dreadful records I have seen in a young man."

The judge sentenced Mason to four years and four months in prison for the attempted robbery, with two years six months to be served concurrently for carrying the knife, as well as a four-year extended licence period - a special kind of punishment given when a judge believes the public need extra protection from a defendant.

The judge said Mason's history of offending dated back to 2002, and that he had been in and out of youth courts for the next several years.

York Crown Court previously heard how Mason was part of a gang that made a series of attacks in York, one of which left a man with a brain injury. He was 15 at the time and was given a four-year custodial sentence.

Other past offences which he committed with others included kicking and stamping on two 15-year-old boys, kicking a man in the head and body 40 times before walking away, and attacking a Dringhouses shopkeeper who objected to their bad behaviour in his shop.

Mason appeared via video-link from Hull prison.

Richard Minion, for Mason, said that he had reduced his offending since 2010, and since his arrest for the failed robbery, had behaved so well in prison, he had earned special privileges. He was also helping vulnerable prisoners.