A would-be robber who chased a man and jumped on a car in an attempt to get at him has been jailed.
Ryan Woods, 31, approached the man as he walked through Armley just before 7pm on June 29 last year and told him: "Give me what you've got." He then took hold of the man by the top of his jogging bottoms. The man said he thought Woods was under the influence of drink or drugs.
Prosecutor Carmel Pearson told Leeds Crown Court on Thursday: "There was a tussle and he [the man tried to get away and was trying to pull away. He [Woods] said he would stab him up if he didn't give him what he got.'"
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The man managed to escape Woods' clutches and ran through Armley before he caught up with him and attempted to chase him around a car. Ms Pearson said: "He thought there would be more protection in another street and Mr Woods followed him and ran after him and shouted after him that he would stab and shoot him.
"The defendant gained on him, adding to the man's concern. There was nobody about for help. The two of them were running around a car and the man was trying to keep the car between them in the hope it would stop him catching him."
The man managed to call the police while he was running around the car and some of the call captured what Woods was saying before he climbed onto the car "as if to get him" but then "gave it up and said he wasn't 'getting locked up for what he was doing.'" He then left and the police arrived.
It was said Woods was caught by officers after a short pursuit and he was arrested. The court heard Woods had eight previous convictions for 14 offences including a number for exposure and assault. He was the subject of a suspended sentence at the time of the attempted robbery.
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Mitigating, Philip Mahoney told the court there was no physical harm done to the victim and added that the pre-sentence report described Woods as having a learning disability.
The barrister said Woods had a "desire to move away from this type of behaviour and it is this indication that he has an insight. He wants very much to undertake the alcohol treatment course because he can see the connection between the drinking and offending and he wants to have the tools to set him away from drinking...He wants the support from the probation service to be able to eradicate himself from his criminal pals."
His Honour Judge Robin Mairs handed Woods a sentence of 17 months and told him although his previous convictions were not for violence, they were "very worrying."
He said: "You do present a risk to the public and have a history of poor compliance with court orders and it seems if you were released today there is no factor that will make a difference between what has happened in the recent past to now."
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