2:46pm Monday 9th November 2009
A KNIFE-WIELDING robber has been jailed for five years following an attack onboard a train.
James Ritchie struck onboard a C2C train travelling between Benfleet and Westcliff when he threatened to stab a 22-year-old man with a flick knife.
He held the knife to the victim’s stomach on December 12 and then stole two mobile phones and a designer wallet worth £800 in total.
But British Transport Police caught him out because he called his ex-girlfriend just 20 minutes later - on the stolen phone.
Ritchie, 25, who lives in Southchurch Avenue, Southend, was found guilty at an earlier trial at Basildon Crown Court in which he declined to take the stand to give evidence in his defence.
He was sentenced to five years imprisonment for the robbery, with a 12-month jail term for possessing a knife to run concurrently.
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