A UNIVERSITY student who carried out two "terrifying" knifepoint raids at shops has been jailed for five years.
Tom Henry Waller, 26, strapped a knife to the end of a golf club and covered his face with a scarf before bursting into Bargain Booze in Worthing Street, west Hull.
Shop owner Manish Patel turned the weapon on Waller and stabbed him in the arm as the robber fled from the shop empty-handed.
Just two days earlier, Waller had threatened staff and customers at Betfred in Beverley Road with a carving knife during another robbery.
Addressing Hull Crown Court by video link, Waller vowed to return to being a "decent, upstanding, taxpaying, caring member of society".
The court heard Waller turned to crime after becoming addicted to heroin while studying to become a social worker at the university.
Waller, a second-year student, said: "My recent abhorrent and frankly disgraceful actions are inexcusable under any circumstances. I am truly sorry for the grief I have caused my victims and the shame I have brought to my family.
"I wanted to ask my university tutors for a reference but I was too ashamed, particularly given the subject I was doing and the contrast between who they know me to be and my recent actions.
"I have had plenty of time to seriously reflect on where my life is heading. The one thing I am left with is an overwhelming sense of clarity, which has led me to the most important epiphany of my life."
Waller added he wishes to meet his victims to apologise personally.
He also admitted stealing a 15-year old girl's handbag as she walked along Worthing Street with her 13- year-old friend in October last year.
Judge Michael Mettyear, the Honorary Recorder of Hull and the East Riding, said: "You are clearly a young man who has had advantages in life. You are educated and articulate and your life has now been blighted by the drugs you take.
"You had gone to Hull University and you had been hoping to do well there until the addiction to heroin emerged or increased. Any of these would be serious offences on their own but, together, they are all the more serious."
On March 12, Waller burst into BetFred with a carving knife and demanded money from the cashier. He escaped with £80.
Prosecutor Jharna Jobes said: "There was a customer in the store at the time, who grabbed a chair to protect himself. There was a tussle between them and the defendant told the cashier, 'Give us some money or I will hurt him'."
Waller, of Ryde Street, west Hull, was caught after he left his bike outside Bargain Booze after the raid on March 14. He later called police to report his bike – matching the description of the one left outside the shop – had been stolen.
Mrs Jobes said: "When he entered the store, he had a weapon that appeared to be two golf clubs that had been attached together, with a knife on the end of them.
"His face was covered with material, leaving two holes for eyes, and his mouth was covered with a scarf. Mr Patel grabbed the golf club, which caused him to run out of the shop."
All of his victims had been left "terrified", said Mrs Jobes.
When officers searched Waller's home, they found a note in his jacket pocket which read: "I have a 9mm pistol and I will use it if you don't keep calm and hand the money over quickly."
It was not used in any of the crimes. Waller pleaded guilty to the robbery at Betfred and attempted robbery at Bargain Booze.
His barrister, Steven Garth, said Waller turned to crime to pay off drug dealers who were threatening him with violence.
Mr Garth said: "If ever there was a case which illustrated the evil of drugs, this is it. He is riddled to the core with guilt for what he has done."
• Crime news for Hull and East Yorkshire
