A STREET robber who targeted lone women and students as he cycled around a town centre has been jailed for 28 months.

Lee Bailey, 26, struck six times in just four days – each time stealing an iPhone to sell to feed his heroin habit.

He rode around Middlesbrough looking for "easy targets" carrying their phones in their hand, Teesside Crown Court heard.

The addict was said to have silently approached his victims from behind before snatching his prize and pedalling off.

He was identified by police from closed circuit television pictures following one of his three crimes on December 1.

A day earlier, he struck in Albert Road when student from the University of Teesside was waiting at a pedestrian crossing.

Two days before that, he grabbed two phones from people in Corporation Road, prosecutor Ian West told the court yesterday.

Last September, Bailey was jailed for three months for an identical theft, and was caught shoplifting straight after his release.

Bailey, of Stumpcross, Guisborough, east Cleveland, elbowed one of his latest victims as she struggled to hang onto her handset.

He admitted robbery and theft and asked for four other thefts to be taken into consideration by Recorder Felicity Davies.

The judge told him: "You deliberately planned and targeted these offences at young women who were walking alone."

Michael Bosomworth, mitigating, said Bailey's criminal career started after he got hooked on heroin four years ago.

He said the former car mechanic led "a normal life" for his first two decades, and hopes to return to it after his sentence.

"This is a man for whom there is clearly scope for rehabilitation," said Mr Bosomworth. "He is anxious to get off heroin."