TWO drunken yobs who threatened slash a bus driver’s throat before robbing him of £16 have been jailed.

Robert Wilkinson, 24, Liam Hunter, 19, and a 17-year-old terrorised the driver after they got on the bus between Durham and Sunderland.

Durham Crown Court heard they intimidated other passengers before approaching the 25-year-old driver when the bus was in Shotton.

Kieran Rainey, prosecuting, said: “One of them said: 'Give us your money, or I’ll cut your throat.'

“The driver was grabbed by the throat.”

A security screen designed to protect the driver fell down, leaving him vulnerable, and he was punched three to five times to the back of the head before the gang made off with his change bag.

The bus driver, who works for Arriva, attended the hearing and said he did not know if he was able to return to work as he suffers from anxiety, has flashbacks and trouble sleeping.

He said: “I don’t know if I can go back to being a bus driver. It has really affected me.”

The court head both men, who are of no fixed abode, were on licence at the time.

Wilkinson, who is from Shotton, had been released from custody after serving half of a four year sentence for arson with intent to endanger life after setting fire to a hostel in Shotton Colliery in 2015.

Hunter had been released from a young offenders’ institution halfway through a sentence for affray, possession of a knife and criminal damage.

Both men apologised to the driver though their barristers in court.

Judge Christopher Prince sentenced each of the men to 40 months in custody, while the 17-year-old who was with them is being dealt with at youth court.

The judge said: “It is very easy for this group of three to turn up the way they did and be all tough and big and brave.

“We are in a position where a very decent young man undertaking a public duty driving people around is deterred from doing so because of behaviour like this.”