A ROBBER who waylaid a man who had just withdrawn his benefit payment at a cash machine will spend an extra seven months behind bars due to his late guilty plea.

James Thomas Collins relieved his victim of the £200 Personal Independence Payment (PIP) he had withdrawn, knocking many of his teeth out with forceful punches in the process.

The incident took place near a store ATM in Shotton Colliery, shortly after midnight on December 13, 2019.

Collins engaged the other man in conversation and asked to borrow £20 from him, before launching the attack and taking the full £200.

Durham Crown Court heard that despite a strong DNA match inside his victim’s pocket, where Collins reached in to snatch the money, he denied a charge of robbery, claiming the forensic evidence may have got there by, “secondary transfer”.

When 28-year-old Collins, of Moor Terrace, Shotton Colliery, appeared at the court to plead to the charge of robbery, on September 21, Judge Ray Singh told him he would receive a 25-per cent discount on sentence if he pleaded guilty at that hearing, adding that it would have been a one-third deduction had he admitted it when he previously went before magistrates.

But Collins denied it and a trial was pencilled in at the court for earlier this month.

The court was told it was only five days before the trial was due to take place, that Collins finally pleaded guilty.

Judge Singh imposed a 54-month prison sentence, telling Collins it would have only been 40-months had he made the admission at the plea hearing in September.

“You were given full opportunity had you admitted it at the outset, but you denied it then, despite it being made clear to you the sentence could have been reduced by one-quarter.

“The ramifications are that a trial date was set and the victim would have been told he would have to come back to give evidence as would other witnesses.

“Faced with overwhelming evidence, you were looking to play the system, and earning very little credit for your guilty plea in the process, messing people about, only five days before trial deciding to plead guilty.”

Nick Peacock, for Collins, said: “There’s no doubt, the guilty plea was late.

“One of the factors for that was that he was awaiting the birth of his son, and once he was born he attended for conference and indicated he would be pleading, albeit putting in that plea only five days before trial.”