A BUNGLING robber who fled empty handed from a building society after attacking a customer with a noxious chemical spray has been jailed for seven years.

Mathew Deans, 34, was on prison licence when he and an accomplice attempted to rob the Yorkshire Building Society in Towngate, Wyke, on the morning of Saturday, September 27, 2014.

The pair, wearing hoods pulled round their faces, aggressively demanded money after lurking outside and then bursting in to the terror of staff and customers.

Alan Benson, who was being served at the counter, was temporarily blinded when one of the raiders squirted him in the eye with a turpentine-like substance.

Paramedics attended Mr Benson at the scene and he was treated at Bradford Royal Infirmary.

Deans, a Bradford man living in Queens Road, Beighton, Sheffield, was convicted by a jury at Bradford Crown Court yesterday of attempted robbery.

The court heard that he was jailed for three years in 2007 for supplying Class A drugs.

Three years later he was locked up for six years for a serious offence of house burglary.

He was on licence at the time of the robbery bid and had since been recalled to jail.

Two spectators at the nearby rugby pitch in Wyke who chased after the raiders were publicly commended by Judge Mark Savill.

He awarded £200 each from public funds to Louise Rush and Peter Kirkby, telling Deans: "Your ineptitude and incompetence stands in stark contrast to their courage."

Deans was arrested after two green latex gloves, with his DNA inside them, were found close by.

The jury heard that he hired a car using his own name for use in the robbery.

Deans' barrister, Shufqat Khan, said that fortunately Mr Benson was not seriously injured.

"This was a shoddy, bungled attempt at a robbery," he said.

Deans' had been addressing his heavy cannabis use while remanded in custody and hoped to study A Level accountancy while serving his sentence.

Judge Savill told Deans: "You plainly targeted large sums of money because this was a building society."

He added: "The message must go out that severe punishment will follow serious criminality."

Four men in the public gallery were remanded into custody during the sentencing hearing after jurors complained they felt intimidated by them. They also saw one of them taking a photo in court, they reported.

The men were released without charge after apologising from the dock.

Judge Savill labelled their behaviour serious and crassly stupid, warning that juries in Bradford were "sacrosanct."

"It is not a joke, it is a criminal offence," he said.

He told them they had narrowly escaped being charged with Contempt of Court, leading to possible prison sentences.