A MAN who tried to stage a robbery at a newspaper office has been put behind bars for more than five and a half years.

Colin Ormerod told a woman on the front desk of the Nelson Leader "I want your money and I've got a knife" -- but he fled the shop after she shouted at him to go.

Preston Crown Court heard that Ormerod had in fact gone into the wrong premises after others had badgered him for money, and told him to carry out a raid at a newsagents.

The 24-year-old defendant, of Harold Avenue, Burnley, appeared for sentence for a series of offences.

He was given prison sentences totalling four years and nine months, but before starting the term, Ormerod must complete 352 days of outstanding prison licence. He had pleaded guilty to the attempted robbery, plus other offences of attempted deception, three of theft and another of failing to surrender to bail.

Ormerod entered the officers of the Nelson Leader on August 6. He walked into a ground floor area of the offices, where a woman was working.

Jeremey Grout-Smith, prosecuting, said the defendant told her "I want your money". She told him to leave, but he went on to say "I want your money and I've got a knife".

Once again the woman shouted for him to leave and this he did. When arrested by police, Ormerod was found to have a piece of paper in one hand that bore the words "Give me the money now". But this was never produced at the newspaper premises.

The defendant ran from the offices and hid behind a garden wall, where he was spotted by another member of staff at the Leader, who pointed out Ormerod to police when they arrived on the scene.

Several months earlier, Ormerod had carried out other offences which included the theft of a £399 bracelet from Argos. The defendant had also stolen jewellery and conned an elderly woman out of £25.

Back in January 2001, he had been given a three-and-a-half year sentence at Burnley Crown Court for robbery. There was almost a year of unexpired licence on that sentence.

Richard Taylor, defending, explained that Ormerod was illiterate on leaving school and had found it very difficult to secure any work. A gullible person, he was later introduced to drugs.

On being released from the three-and-a-half-year sentence, he lived properly for around ten months and stayed out of trouble. Then he got involved again with heroin and the current offences occured against that background.

He had owed people £210 and they gave him the note, intended for handing over in the attempted robbery.

"It was a most odd crime. He says he went into the wrong shop. The people who were badgering him for money had told him to go to the newsagents.

"He went into the Nelson Leader offices, where there would not have been ready money to hand," said Mr Taylor.

He had no weapon and the offence was not a "professional" one.