A ROBBER who carried out two knife-point raids, leaving one of his victims bleeding in a locked cupboard, has been jailed for 12 years.
Jonathan David Powell, 23, had claimed to be interested in buying a car from his first victim.
Powell and a friend were invited into the 41-year-old man's West Bridgford home on April 12 to complete the paperwork.
But when they got inside the Wilford Lane house they threatened the man with a kitchen knife and demanded money.
The victim was stabbed twice in the leg and locked in a cupboard while three mobile phones, a TV, a DVD player and keys to a Fiat car were stolen.
The car, parked outside, was then taken but was found abandoned in Kenia Close a few days later with the DVD player inside.
The victim, who did not want to be named, forced his way out of the cupboard and was taken to hospital. He is still coming to terms with his ordeal.
He said: "I haven't spoken to people about what happened, not even my GP – it's had a big effect on me.
"I'm very pleased with the sentence and I hope it's a lesson to others that you can't get away with things like this.
"If I hadn't been able to get out of that cupboard I feel like that could have been the end of my life.
"Now I have real trouble trusting anyone."
Powell, of no fixed address but originally from Manchester, later struck at the Coral Bookmakers shop in Victoria Road, Netherfield, on Monday, April 22.
A member of staff was grabbed by the neck and threatened by a masked man who had burst in behind the counter holding a knife and demanded she open the safe.
Despite the threats the 47-year-old victim refused, so Powell grabbed money from a cash drawer and fled, leaving her shaken but unharmed.
Powell was soon identified and arrested after police viewed CCTV of the robbery and realised he had spent the hour before the attack in the shop pretending to be a customer.
He then went into the men's toilets and emerged wearing the same clothes, but with a balaclava over his face.
Powell had pleaded guilty to both robberies at an earlier hearing and was sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court on Thursday.
He was jailed for 12 years for the Wilford Lane robbery, five years for the Coral bookmaker's robbery and two years for possession of a bladed weapon – all of which will run concurrently.
He was also ordered to remain on licence for an additional five years.
Detective Constable Bobby Garrow said: "At West Bridgford he not only attacked a man in his own home, but he left him locked up and bleeding without a care for his welfare.
"At Netherfield he must have thought his balaclava was something out of a Harry Potter story, giving him the power of invisibility, because he'd been in the shop for all to see for an hour beforehand.
"Both robberies took minutes, for which he ended up with a small amount of cash, a TV and a couple of phones – a poor trade for his freedom."
