AN armed robber has been jailed indefinitely for terrorising a woman at a Farm Foods store in Selby.

Ian Gary Wynne, 43, went into the shop wearing a helmet and pulled out an imitation gun, said David Garnett, prosecuting, at York Crown Court. He pointed it eight inches from the assistant shop manager and demanded that she hand over money. Mr Garnett said: “She was absolutely petrified and went into a state of shock and panic.”

Minutes earlier, Wynne had phoned the shop in Selby town centre, claiming to be a police officer. His tale of investigating thefts by an employee tricked her into taking him into the shop’s back office where the money was kept.

He got away with £2,220. The store worker was so terrified it was months before she could return to work. She needed counselling and treatment for depression.

Judge Stephen Ashurst, the Recorder of York, described the raid as “professional” and “planned” by Wynne, who had already served a ten-year sentence for similar raids on bookmakers and travel agencies in the late 1990s. Wynne, of Monkhill Avneue, Pontefract, pleaded guilty to robbery and possessing a BB gun. He was given an indefinite sentence.

His barrister, Simon Kealey, said financial pressure had forced Wynne to resume his robbery career.