A TEENAGER who took part in a violent robbery at a March store has been jailed for three-and-a-half years. Mark Blake, 18, and two other youths covered their faces with scarves and pulled hoodies up over their heads before walking into the store in County

A TEENAGER who took part in a violent robbery at a March store has been jailed for three-and-a-half years.

Mark Blake, 18, and two other youths covered their faces with scarves and pulled hoodies up over their heads before walking into the store in County Road and demanding money.

One of the robbers then punched the cashier in the face, leaving him cut and bruised, before dragging him over the counter and forcing him to lie, face down, on the floor.

The trio then stole £400 in cash from the till, causing around £1,000 damage as they did so, before running off, at around 4pm on March 21.

Blake, of Robin Goodfellow's Lane, March, was arrested after forensic experts found a footprint at the scene, which was later matched to a pair of his trainers.

Luke Blackburn, mitigating, said the 18-year-old and his accomplices had "worked each other up and egged each other on", and said no weapons had been used during the robbery.

Blake, who had pleaded guilty to robbery at an earlier hearing, was jailed for three and a half years at Cambridge Crown Court on Friday.

The full story of how three yobs with scarves covering their faces brutally attacked a March shop assistant was told in the Cambs Times in March.

The yobs punched the man repeatedly in the head using knuckle dusters and kicking him as he lay bleeding on the floor.

The horrific attack, the third of its kind on Sharma's grocery and off licence in County Road, was carried out in broad daylight at about 4pm on a Tuesday.

The brazen youths snatched £600 from the till and grabbed cigarettes before running off along Robingoodfellows Lane, leaving victim Saravanan Thangamany lying in a pool of blood.

The robbers had coiled black scarves around their heads so tightly only their eyes could be seen.