A PROLIFIC crook who tried to rob a commercial driver of her company Mercedes, has been jailed for three years.

David Terrell’s plucky victim Stephanie Crack had told him to get lost before he had rammed a crowbar in the driver’s door to try to stop her closing it.

Terrell, who had demanded the victim’s purse and the car keys, then made off, leaving her shaken up by the incident, Burnley Crown Court heard.

The defendant, who Ms Crack described to officers as appearing ‘intoxicated, nervous and desperate’, was later arrested after walking into Blackburn Police Station and owning up to the offence and a string of others.

Terrell, 28, of Richmond Road, Accrington, admitted attempted robbery, last October, and asked for 22 offences — 20 thefts from vehicles, one theft of a vehicle and one attempted car theft — to be considered.

He was said by the prosecution to have a record going back ‘a considerable time’ for assault and burglary and in 2002 he was jailed for 54 months for rape and placed on the sex offenders’ register.

Mark Lamberty, prosecuting, said the victim, who is in her late 30s, went to work at 6.40am in Accrington. She parked in the car park at the back of the premises where she worked as a commercial driver and started transferring items from her own vehicle into a Mercedes belonging to the company she worked for.

The defendant went up to her and asked her the time and if there was a route through the car park. The victim explained there was and Terrell walked off.

He then came back and approached Ms Crack saying: ‘Give us your purse and car keys, love’ in an aggressive manner.

The victim told him ‘in no uncertain terms’ to leave, as she stood by the side of the Mercedes, which had its engine running.

Mr Lamberty said she got into the vehicle and Terrell, who had a crowbar in his hand, put it between the door and the door pillar, so she couldn’t close the driver's door, but the victim was able to pull the door closed and rang the police.

Passing sentence, Judge Simon Newell said that Terrell’s solicitor Daniel King was entirely right in what he had said in his mitigation —there had to be a custodial sentence.