A MAN who held up two taxi drivers at knifepoint, threatening to kill one of them while holding a blade to his throat, has been sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison.

Kyrin Lane, aged 29, appeared at Bournemouth Crown Court for sentence last week after earlier pleading guilty to two counts of robbery and two counts of threatening someone with a weapon.

The court heard that in the early hours of December 9, 2018, Lane – a bricklayer by trade – carried out two separate robberies on two taxi drivers within hours of one another in Boscombe.

Lane, a father-of-one, attacked the first driver after jumping into his vehicle at the taxi rank in Meyrick Road shortly after 12.50am and initially posing as a fare-paying passenger.

Prosecuting, Simon Walters told the court how the victim was ordered to pull over in Knole Road, Boscombe, where Lane pulled out a large knife with a blade 10 or 12cm long and told the terrified driver to “give me all your money.”

Between £120 and £150 was taken, before the victim managed to jump out of his taxi, run away then call police.

During the second attack, which came within a few hours, a second taxi driver was approached by two men who asked for a ride.

Once again, the driver was asked to stop in Knole Road, opposite St Clement’s Church.

However, on this occasion the second man, who has never been identified by police, grabbed hold of the driver from behind and restrained him while Lane held a knife to his neck.

The victim was told by both men to “give me the money now or we will kill you.”

Mr Walters told the court how the terrified driver recalled: “I was in fear of my life.” Mr Walters added: “He tried to get away and they were screaming at him, but he opened the driver's door and flung himself out.”

Lane and the other man then drove off in the taxi, which was later abandoned and set on fire.

A mobile phone, a payment card machine and £10 in change were stolen.

In his victim impact statement, which was read to the court, the second taxi driver said that in his native Morocco some of the districts he worked as a driver in are among the most dangerous in the world, even the police would not travel into them.

But the robbery in Bournemouth was “the most scared I have ever been in my life," he said.

The driver added: “This has destroyed me, I am still scared because the police have not found the other man.

“This has been the scariest incident in my life and I don’t want it to happen to anyone else.”

The victim, a family man who supports children, also said he now suffers from anxiety and his wife cannot sleep whenever he is out working as a taxi driver.

“I just keep feeling he could have killed me,” he said. “Due to his actions my life has been changed. I’m consistently nervous and anxious.

“I didn’t deserve this.”

Lane was arrested at a flat in Walpole Road, Bournemouth, less than 24 hours after the robberies.

Mitigating, Robert Grey said his client’s behaviour had been driven by class A drugs use, which he only started using six months prior to the incident.

Judge Stephen Climie agreed that Lane had displayed significant remorse for his actions, and that he had been somewhat of a “Jekyll and Hyde” character due to drugs use.

The judge also noted Lane had been drugs free while on remand in prison, had completed a number of drugs awareness courses, and, although had other convictions, had done nothing as serious in nature as this before.

However, sentencing him to six-and-a half-years in total, which drew gasps from the public gallery, Judge Climie told Lane: “For those who carry and use knives there will be little mercy shown.”