A robber has been jailed for four years for his part in an armed robbery on Knock Travel in Belfast.
Philip Dorrian of no fixed abode, who is already serving a jail term and has 60 previous convictions, admitted being involved in raid on of the travel agency in September 2009.
A court in Belfast heard one of a gang of masked robbers threatened to stab the manageress of the agency.
She was forced to tell them where the company cash box was kept.
Prosecutor Peter Magill said that Dorrian was one of four masked men who rushed into the agency, while a fifth man waited in the getaway car, stolen the previous evening.
He added that Dorrian, who admitted being armed with a hammer during the robbery, had over 60 previous convictions, including three for robbery dating back to 2004.
Belfast Recorder Judge Tom Burgess said that despite pre-sentence reports, he believed that Dorrian would represent a significant danger to the public in the future.
The judge said that the agency had been targeted by Dorrian and the others in the hope that there might be substantial sums on the premises and that they would be met by little or no security.
He said that the manageress had been put through a frightening experience, and while she was spared the added trauma of giving evidence, Dorrian had little regard for the safety of others and cared nothing for making crude threats of violence.
Dorrian will be subject to a further four years supervised licence when he is released.
He has two months to run of a three-year sentence for another robbery.