A MAN has been jailed for four years and three months for threatening two delivery workers at knifepoint on a Bradford street to rob one of them.

Luke Darling told the man and woman: “I’ll stab you both if you don’t give me £20,” Bradford Crown Court heard.

He pleaded guilty to robbing the woman of £10 in Fagley Road at 9.45am on June 6, two offences of theft and possession of a knife.

Prosecutor Paul Nicholson said the delivery workers were parked outside a house loading up an old fridge freezer when Darling was seen running away from the lorry.

The man gave chase when he realised his phone and his colleague’s bag had been stolen from the cab.

Darling, 25, of no fixed address, dropped the items and pulled out a large silver knife that he held as if to throw at the delivery worker.

He then followed the man, who picked up a piece of plastic pipe to defend himself.

He was able to film Darling on his phone as he told him he was homeless and needed money for food.

It was then that Darling threatened to stab his victims if they didn’t give him £20. The woman handed over £10 and he walked away.

Mr Nicholson said it was her first day in the job and she was left shaken and tearful.

Darling was recognised by the police from the phone footage and arrested at an address in Fagley where he had previously been living.

The court heard he had nine previous convictions for 20 offences of dishonesty but had never committed a robbery before.

He was on prison licence at the time and was sentenced on a video link to HMP Leeds after being recalled.

Gerald Hendon said in mitigation that the robbery was a spur of the moment offence after Darling had stolen the phone and bag from the lorry.

He had relapsed into heroin and crack cocaine use during the Covid-19 pandemic and was homeless and going through bins looking for food.

Judge Jonathan Rose accepted that Darling was living rough and hungry and did not set out that day to commit a robbery.

But he was carrying a knife while on prison licence and he left his female victim terrified on her first day at work.

Darling had moved from committing low level offences to one that merited a lengthy term of imprisonment.