AN ARMED robber was literally caught red-handed by police just minutes after holding up travel agency staff in Durham at knifepoint.

Heroin addict Peter Scorer was jailed for four years at Durham Crown Court on Tuesday after admitting carrying out the robbery, at the North Road branch of Going Places, on March 11.

The court heard he confronted the manager - who was five-and-a-half months pregnant - with a long-handled knife stolen minutes earlier from another shop in Durham.

As terrified assistants, a work placement girl and a customer looked on, Scorer, whose face was covered by a hat and scarf, demanded cash.

The manager managed to activate a panic alarm and in-shop closed circuit TV cameras as she apparently searched for money in a till drawer, while a colleague in the rear of the premises rang police on a mobile phone.

Scorer demanded the contents of the safe and followed the manager to the back of the shop until he was given what appeared to be a bundle of cash.

He then locked the staff members and the customer in a back yard and made off, grabbing the petty cash tin, containing £110.

Andrew Walker, prosecuting, said the cash bundle contained a security device which activated as he left the premises, emitting a red plume of dye as he dashed up North Road. Scorer, stained by some of the dye, turned into nearby Sutton Street, where he flagged down a taxi.

Mr Walker said Scorer had barely passed on the instructions to the driver when the taxi was surrounded by police vehicles. Scorer was arrested without a struggle and made full admissions in interview.

Barry Robson, mitigating, said: "When Peter Scorer ran through the streets of Durham there was not just one red plume of smoke, there was the red mist that came over him before he committed this offence."

Mr Robson said Scorer, a heroin addict since 1995, took valium before the raid.

Although the father of a young son had tried to make an honest living, his window cleaning business folded late last year, added Mr Robson.

Jailing 32-year-old Scorer, of Hadrian Road, Fenham, Newcastle, Judge Richard Lowden said it must have been a terrifying experience for all in the shop