THE getaway driver in an attempted knifepoint raid on a sub-post office was today starting a four-year jail term.

Peter Bortoft, 23, had been honest and hard-working until he fell victim to heroin and a judge said it must have been dreadful for his family to see what he had become.

Sentencing at Burnley Crown Court, Judge Lesley Newton said she had to bear in mind the vulnerability of those working in post offices and added she was entirely satisfied the defendant knew a robbery with a knife was being carried out when he sat outside the shop in Fence with his car engine running.

Bortoft, of Church Street, Hapton, had admitted attempted robbery.

Michael Lavery, prosecuting, said victim James Addison was working in the sub-post office on Wheatley Lane Road around lunchtime on December 20, 2000.

Another man entered the shop wearing a woollen hat and his face was covered in a scarf with only his eyes visible.

He approached Mr Addison, told him to put the contents of the till in a bag and produced a black-handled knife with a six-inch blade. The victim pressed the alarm button and the would-be robber dashed from the shop into a waiting car.

An off- duty police officer saw the man run from the post office and officers later went to the defendant's home where he lived with his girlfriend. Police discovered a hat and scarf and a knife which had gone missing from the property the night before was handed over after it was found behind the fridge. All were identified by Mr Addison as having been used in the attack attempt on him.

Mr Lavery told the court Bortoft was later interviewed by police and supplied alibis which were "elaborate inventions".

John Woodward, defending, said before 2000, Bortoft had had a job, had no previous convictions and was building a very good lifestyle.

Both he and his girlfriend then suffered from depression and the defendant took solace in cannabis. He then went on to heroin and before long was addicted.