A MAN has been jailed for three years for robbing a Spar shop and threatening staff with a metal bar – after police matched his DNA from a mask.

Ben Andrew, 25, of Kingston View, Barton-Upon-Humber, entered the newsagents on Waterside Road, Barton, and demanded money and cigarettes from staff, Grimsby Crown Court heard.

The incident, on March 13 this year, saw Andrew disguise himself with a blue cloth mask, with cut out eye and mouth holes.

He was spotted hanging round outside his local store "behaving suspiciously" before the robbery, and staff had been advised by customers to contact the police if it persisted.

He then entered the shop, raising a metal bar and told a female shop assistant "do as you are told and I won't hurt you" and later left the store with £240 worth of stolen cash.

Jeremy Evans, prosecuting, said when the woman realised Andrew had left the shop, a customer tried to pursue the defendant but later lost him.

When police conducted a search of the area they found the "home-made balaclava" and examined the saliva from inside it.

Andrew was then arrested on March 22 and originally pleaded not guilty to level two robbery, saying the t-shirt used to make the mask had been stolen from his washing line. He later pleaded guilty.

The female member of staff he had threatened said although the incident lasted just minutes it felt like hours.

Richard Hackfath, mitigating, said Andrew has a partner and three children and had difficulty facing up to the consequences of his actions.

He said an addiction to cannabis led to the misuse of class A drugs and a dealer in the Barton area had made threats to him and his family, leading him to take desperate measures.

Mr Hackfath added: "He has co-operated with a drug intervention programme and managed to get a job as a fork lift driver.

"He has shown genuine remorse for what he has done."

Judge David Tremberg said there was clearly an element of planning in the robbery and the female he targeted was a "vulnerable individual" providing a service to the public.

He said therefore Andrew thought she was "easy pickings."