TWO robbers who marched their victim to a cash machine have been jailed for a total of more than four years.

Lewis Thompson and Jordan Anderson, who was subject to an antisocial behaviour order at the time, stole £10 from Nicholas Howe next to McDonald’s in Cornmarket Street, Oxford, on June 24.

The victim, who was taken to a nearby bank machine before his attackers fled without taking any more money, believed the pair had a knife, Oxford Crown Court heard on Monday.

The two defendants had been due to stand trial, but changed their pleas to guilty as members of the jury prepared to enter the court.

Paul Harrison, prosecuting, said 21-year-old Anderson and 22-year-old Thompson were eating chips outside McDonald’s in the early hours of the morning when they spotted Mr Howe on his own and approached him by the alley leading to the Crown pub.

Judge Anthony King said he passed sentence on the basis that neither man had a knife, but took into account that their victim believed there to be one.

He said: “You entered your pleas literally as the jury were coming through the door of the court to try you.

“Thompson, you have a previous conviction for robbery and other convictions of dishonesty.

“Anderson, you have previous convictions for dishonesty and violence and were subject to a court order.

“This was a street robbery at night on a wholly innocent individual committed by agreement by the two of you when you had identified a suitable target, while one of you kept watch the other moved in.

“You forced him to hand over money and manhandled him, though he was not physically harmed.”

Jonathan Code, defending Anderson, said: “There was no weapon used, no injury caused and it was relatively short lived. It was not a very persistent robbery.”

Sophie Murray, defending, Thompson, said her client had ended his crack and heroin addiction three years ago.

She added: “At 22 years of age he has spent a large proportion of his adult life in custody.

“He can, with the right help, be pointed in the right direction.”

Anderson, of Southfield Park, East Oxford, was jailed for 21 months. Thompson, of Oxford Road, Cowley, was given a 32-month sentence.

tairs@oxfordmail.co.uk