A desperate drug addict who threatened to stab a teenage shop assistant during a robbery at a Keighley newsagents has been jailed for five years.

Danny Caswell, 54, told police that he had robbed Ruby Newsagents in Devonshire Street West last month because he wanted to be locked up so he could get help with his drugs problem.

Prosecutor Ewan McLachlan described how 19-year-old Irfan Ismail was working alone behind the counter on a Sunday afternoon when Caswell, who was a regular customer, came in.

Caswell walked behind the counter and threatened to stab Mr Ismail if he did not open the till.

Bradford Crown Court heard today that Caswell did not actually have a knife with him, but he was carrying a comb in his pocket.

"Fearing for his safety Mr Ismail opened the till," said Mr McLachlan.

"The defendant helped himself to approximately £195 from the till."

As Caswell stole the money the shop assistant saw his hands shaking and his barrister Stephen Wood told the court that his client had been "rattling" at the time of the robbery.

Caswell, of Devonshire Street, Keighley, was arrested a few days after the robbery and told officers that he needed to go to jail to get help with his drugs problem.

He confirmed that the item in his pocket had been a metal comb and the money he had stolen had been spent on drugs.

Caswell pleaded guilty to the robbery charge at an early stage and Mr McLachlan revealed that back in 1993 he had been jailed for six years for conspiracy to rob.

Mr Wood told Recorder Christopher Williams that everything in the case pointed to a man in a terrible downward spiral since he started taking drugs in 2002.

"He told police he had committed this offence to get locked up because he had heard about Armley's drug rehabilitation programme," noted Mr Wood.

"It's a bizarre claim but your honour may well think there might be something in it because of the following features.

"Here was a man who was patently on drugs. He chose to attack a store that was on his doorstep. A store which he had used for months if not years where everybody knew him.

"So everything in this case really points to the defendant knowing that he was going to be caught."

Mr Wood pointed out that with Caswell's record it would have been easy for him to don a disguise, drive to a different part of West Yorkshire and commit exactly the same offence somewhere else.

Recorder Williams said he accepted that Caswell had expressed genuine remorse for the offence in a hand-written letter and he concluded that he did not pose a significant risk of serious harm to the public.

He also said he took account of the fact that there was no knife involved although a threat had been made to the victim.

"Offences of robbery of this type are very serious in their nature," he told Caswell.

"They have repercussions for the shopkeepers and repercussions for the community."

Recorder Williams said five years in jail was the shortest appropriate sentence and he told Caswell that he would be released on licence after serving half that term.