TWO robbers used their car to ram a gaming machine collector’s pick-up truck off the road and steal the takings.

However, a court heard yesterday that their haul was only £60.

Stuart Anthony Penney, 28, and Marc Ryan Skelly, 23, followed their 52-year-old victim from an isolated rural pub where he had been emptying a machine and ambushed him. The victim was punched in the face and body by Skelly before he fled on foot.

Jailing the two after they admitted robbery at Durham Crown Court, Recorder Rodney Jameson said: “It seems inevitable that you must have felt you would get more money.

“It is hard to imagine you would have persisted if you thought it was only £60.

“But the robbery was persistent and determined and involved the use of a vehicle effectively as weapon to force the complainant off the road.”

Peter Sabiston, prosecuting, said Penney and Skelly saw their victim as he removed money from a machine at the Bridge Inn, in Ramshaw, near Bishop Auckland , at 11pm on Friday, August 3.

The victim got into his yellow Proton pick-up truck and was driving between Evenwood and West Auckland when a Ford Focus approached and tailgated him.

He initially thought it was a road rage incident, but realised he was going to be robbed when the car, driven by Penney, drew alongside him before swerving in front and skidding to a stop.

Mr Sabiston said: “(The victim) tried to ride around the defendants, but he was forced off the road by the car being driven at him deliberately – spinning his car around, nearly flipping his pick-up over.

“At this stage, he was extremely concerned for his own personal safety.

“He tried to make off by making a three-point turn, but was again hit by the defendants’ car.”

The victim called police, who arrested Penney and Skelly in Wordsworth Road, Darlington.

Simon Perkins, mitigating, said that while there was some planning, it was confined to that night.

Penney of Folkton Holme, Bradford, West Yorkshire, who was out of prison on licence for an offence of affray at the time of the robbery, was sentenced to four years in jail.

Skelly, of Jacana Way, Bradford, was sentenced to threeand- a-half years in jail.