A PAIR of raiders have been dubbed Britain's worst robbers after the duo forgot to cut eye holes in their face masks.

The antics left lawyers laughing when the pair appeared at York Crown Court.

The court heard they repeatedly bumped into each other as they raided the newsagents; stumbled into the counter; could not see the shopkeeper as he dialled 999, and removed their masks to find their way out - right in front of the security cameras.

Finally, they escaped with three packets of cigarettes from the raid on Kevin and Helen Semark's newsagents in Scarborough Terrace, York.

Thomas Rathbone, 18, of Bootham, York, and a 17-year-old who cannot be named, admitted carrying out the robbery in July.

The judge sent Rathbone to a young offenders' institution for 12 months and gave the other youth a 12-month detention and training order.

Yesterday, a spokesman for North Yorkshire Police said: "They must have been the dumbest raiders in the world. When the video was played at the police station it was more like a farce than a hold up.