THREE teenage thugs jailed for stabbing a man in the face during a street robbery have been given stiffer sentences.

Prince Umoh, 19, Hamse Digale, 19, and Mahud Nuur, 18, all from Hayes, battered a man and attacked him with a blade as they snatched his iPhone 4.

Appearing at Isleworth Crown Court in April, Digale, of St Anselm’s Road, and Nuur, of Denbigh Drive, were convicted of robbery and each handed three-and-a-half years detention in a young offenders’ institute.

Umoh, of Waltham Avenue, admitted two counts of robbery and received three years and nine months detention.

But on Monday, June 24, three senior judges at London’s Court of Appeal upheld a bid by the Attorney General, Dominic Grieve, and increased Umoh’s term to six and a half years and Digale and Nuur’s detention period to five-and-a-half years.

The gang carried out the terrifying mugging after targeting their victim in Martindale Road, Hounslow, on September 11 last year.

They were caught after police found CCTV footage of them boarding a bus shortly after the attack.

Officers then used DNA evidence to link Umoh to a similar robbery nearby earlier that evening, in which a man was threatened with a large kitchen knife and his cash and phone taken.

Tom Little, appearing for the Attorney General, told the Appeal Court the sentencing judge had given the trio excessively soft punishments after failing to take proper account of sentencing guidelines.

Lady Justice Rafferty, sitting with Mr Justice Kenneth Parker and Judge William Davis QC, described the sentences as ‘unduly lenient’.