A ‘DESPERATE’ robber who threatened a shop worker with a knife and smashed a till over her head to get money for drugs has been jailed.

Matthew Hawryluk, 25, brandished the weapon during the attack at Hanna’s Convenience Store in Blackburn before stealing £1,000.

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Mother-of-four Sajda Ashraf, who was working in the Infirmary Street store, which used to be called ZY Grocers, at the time said she had ‘feared the worst’ when Hawryluk threatened her.

Her son Tayab, who was 14 at the time, raised the alarm with police while Mrs Ashraf’s husband Shakeel Minhas tried to tackle the thief outside.

Speaking after the hearing, detectives from East CID said Hawryluk was a violent offender who had committed the robbery to feed his class A drug problem.

DS Adrian McHurgh said: “It was actually out of character for him and he did it to feed his drugs addiction.

“His actions were clearly of a desperate man who was in urgent need of money and resorted to quite extreme actions to get it.

“When we interviewed him, he was quite remorseful and he admitted the offences pretty quickly.”

The defendant, of Avon Close, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to robbery and possession of an offensive weapon.

He was sentenced by Miss Recorder Susan Grocott QC to three years and six months for the robbery and six months concurrent for possessing the knife, which must be forfeited. He must also pay a surcharge of £120.

DS McHugh said Mrs Ashraf had been left traumatised by the attack.

He said: “In her victim personal statement, she said that it had quite a profound effect on her .”