A YOUNG Huddersfield flick knife user is starting a six-year sentence.

Daniel Dixon, 19, was involved in a terrifying attack on a cabby in the town.

Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday that Dixon, of Brownroyd Avenue, Rawthorpe, and an accomplice were wearing balaclavas when they got into Mohammed Ali’s taxi on Leeds Road last October.

The accomplice got in the front seat and held a handgun to Mr Ali’s left cheek, said prosecutor Heather Gilmore.

She said Dixon was in the back and pointed the knife towards Mr Ali’s neck.

The accomplice ordered Mr Ali to drive to an industrial estate and stop. He was then told to get out.

Dixon then got out of the taxi and took a money bag which Mr Ali was wearing across his chest. After taking the bag Dixon said he was sorry and the duo then drove off in Mr Ali’s car.

Dixon pleaded guilty to robbery.

The prosecution accepted that he did not know his accomplice had a gun.

As well as pleading guilty to robbery, burglary and theft Dixon asked for a further 42 matters, mostly car-related offending, to be considered.

The shorter custodial sentences for the other offences will run alongside the six-year term.

Judge Roger Scott heard that while Dixon was wanted on a warrant in respect of the robbery he burgled a house and drove off in the owner’s car after taking the keys from a table.

He was arrested the next day after being found in the loft of a house. He admitted his part in the robbery.

“He said he didn’t know how much money there had been but he split it with his accomplice,” said Mrs Gilmore.

Judge Scott said that among the aggravating features of the case was the fact that Dixon had a previous conviction for robbery in 2006 and had received an 18-month detention and training order for that offence.

The judge told Dixon that if he had been found guilty after a trial he would have got a sentence of nine years in a young offenders’ institution.

But because he was entitled to a discount of a third for his guilty plea that would be reduced to six years.

Barrister Ruth Cranidge, for Dixon, said his partner had given birth to a daughter just four weeks ago.

She said he contacted the police about the 42 offences because he wanted to make a clean start on his release and hoped to live a law-abiding lifestyle.