A FECKLESS robber has been jailed after trying to sell stolen goods to undercover policemen - while his victims stood next to him.
Heroin addict Mark Ellis was given a nine-month sentence for approaching the two officers in Pinner High Street with the two teenage victims in tow.
Having demanded money from a couple of 14-year-olds walking through a park in Watford, Ellis made the victims accompany him to Pinner to watch him sell their phones and iPods.
At first he asked the two boys from Harrow to hand over their money, warning them that his attention deficit condition meant they could 'do it the easy way or the hard way'.
After getting them to empty their pockets he demanded they go with him to Pinner on the train so he could sell the items. But when he approached the plain-clothed officers they realised something was afoot.
Ellis, 21, from Croxley Green, Watford, has already been convicted of 25 other offences in the past five years - including theft, burglary and robbery.
Sentencing him at Harrow Crown Court, Judge Ronald Moss said: "I'm finding it difficult to know what to do with you because you have been given every opportunity in the past to get yourself out of this rut.
"I try not to preach to people in front of me in this court, but really it is quite sad to see someone of 21 who is completely falling by the wayside.
"These 14-year-olds were so scared that they stayed with you for more than an hour and a half.
"You are spiralling into a situation where by the time you are 40 you would have spent most of your life in prison, and you will look back on your existence and wonder what was the point.
"If I was you I would start thinking about growing up rather than constantly breaking the law."
