A HOODED and masked robber who held up a 67-year-old shopworker at knifepoint has been jailed for six years.

Nathan Christopher Stone, 28, forced her to open the till and got away with £800 and some cigarettes, Andrew Finlay, prosecuting, told York Crown Court.

He terrified the shopworker so much she has had to give up her job of 13 years and is now frightened of stepping inside the shop.

"It still makes me cry just thinking about it, it was so scary," she said in a personal statement.

Defence barrister Nick Peacock said Stone had run up a drug debt of £3,500 and been beaten up by drug dealers when he couldn't pay.

"He felt the only thing he could go and rob a shop," said Mr Peacock. "That is what happens when you fall out with drug dealers."

The Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris, said Stone himself had a conviction for supplying Class A drugs.

"You peddled drugs to people so you have inflicted on others the misery you find yourself suffering," he told Stone.

"You terrified her (the shopworker). She is obviously, from what I have heard, suffering from post traumatic stress disorder."

Stone, of Barrowcliffe Road, Scarborough, pleaded guilty to robbery and carrying a knife and was jailed for six years.

DC Steve Monty, from Scarborough and Ryedale CID, said: “Nathan Stone caused severe upset and anguish to the shop worker when he confronted her with a knife during the robbery.

"He also created real fear in the wider Scarborough community while he was being tracked by the police.

"It is pleasing that he has been brought to justice and handed a substantial prison sentence as a consequence of his shameful actions.”

Mr Finlay told York Crown Court that Stone walked into Manor Road Stores in Scarborough at 5.15pm on March 30.

He was wearing a hood and a face mask, though the coronavirus requirement to wear one in shops had been removed two months earlier.

The shopworker was alone in the shop and Stone was considerably bigger than her, said Mr Finlay.

Stone forced his way behind the counter, brandishing his kitchen knife which was five or six inches long.

He tried to get into the till, which was locked, and when he failed, he forced the shopworker to use her code to open it.

Then he grabbed the money and left, returning moments later to grab something else.

Mr Peacock said Stone had run up the debt while using drugs. He no longer was a drug user, but had to pay the money.

He was able to do so until he lost his job. Then he was beaten up.

He was supported by his brother and sister who described him as normally a "considerate, kind" man.