A JURY has acquitted a former postal worker accused of being a bogus postman who tried to rob a shop worker at knifepoint.

Christopher John Jackson stood trial twice at York Crown Court, accused of tricking assistant manager Ann Crosby into unlocking her store in Acomb as she prepared to open it for customers.

Mr Jackson denied a charge of attempted robbery on the grounds he was the victim of mistaken identity. The first jury had to be discharged partway through the case for legal reasons, and the second acquitted 51-year-old Mr Jackson, of Tudor Road, Acomb.

Prosecution barrister David Hall told how the real knifeman, wearing a fluorescent yellow Royal Mail waistcoat and an orange crash helmet, had knocked on the door to Savers, in Front Street, at about 8.30am on May 27 last year, carrying a parcel addressed to the shop.

When Ms Crosby went outside, thinking it was a delivery, the man pulled out a 12-inch knife and ordered her to “get yourself back in there”.

Ms Crosby fled screaming to the Farmfoods store next door and although two members of the public gave chase on foot and in a car, the would-be robber got away.

The prosecution claimed that Mr Jackson’s writing was on the envelope and his fingerprints were on the parcel’s contents, but accepted that neither pursuer picked him out at an ID procedure.

Mr Jackson gave evidence that he was at home at the time of the attempted robbery, waiting for an important visit from a social worker. He denied placing CDs and DVDs in the parcel and writing the address.

The jury heard that Mr Jackson had worked for Royal Mail in the past and he had handled hundreds of CDs while putting newspapers together when he worked for Menzies Distribution, at Clifton Moor, before being laid off on May 20, 2008.