A MAN who threatened to blow up a foreign currency exchange before fleeing with £4,000 in cash has been jailed.

Homeless David Embleton approached the glass partition at Eurochange in Durham city centre, telling the cashier: ‘This is not a threat, it is a robbery. I’m a professional’.

Durham Crown Court heard the 50-year-old kept one arm concealed under a jacket and demanded English pound sterling from the terrified woman.

Victoria Lamballe, prosecuting, said: “He stated he would chuck something under the counter and blow the place up if she didn’t get cash. She was understandable shaken.

“She went to the safe and managed to activate the panic alarm.”

The court was told Embleton was becoming ‘agitated and aggressive’, telling the woman to hurry and that he had a car waiting outside.

The cashier told police she did not know if he had a knife or a gun.

She was not injured but the court heard she had been traumatised by the ordeal and found it difficult to return to work.

CCTV from the premises and neighbouring Boots store was handed to police and Embleton was arrested.

When he was interviewed Embleton gave a ‘no reply’ interview, but has subsequently pleaded guilty to a single charge of robbery.

The raid, on April 7, was committed while Embleton was on bail accused of injuring a man he had shared a house with in Gilesgate, inflicting a stab wound to the leg and slashes across his arms and hand.

The court was told he has also pleaded guilty to a single charge of wounding.

Miss Lamballe said: “It was a sustained assault.”

The court was told Embleton has 38 convictions for 103 offences, dating back to the 1980s.

In 2004, he was given a nine year prison sentence for supplying class A drugs.

Mitigating, Tony Hawkes, said: “It is a rather a sad picture. He has ruined the majority of his life with drugs and drink.

“He served a significant period of imprisonment and it is easy to say he should have learned his lesson and put his life back together.

“He found that after years in prison it was very difficult to readjust to independent living.”

Judge Simon Hickey said he will serve five years for the robbery and another three years and four months for the wounding.