A teenager faces a lengthy prison term after threatening a shopkeeper with a knife and cutting a customer’s arm as he fled.

The 17-year-old tried to rob Bradley Booze and News on Leeds Road on New Year’s Eve.

He used a teenage girl’s scarf to cover his face before demanding cash from the female worker.

A district judge sent the teenager to Leeds Crown Court for sentencing.

But District Judge Michael Fanning warned him to expect a term of imprisonment in excess of three years for the ‘pre-planned attack’.

The teenage boy, who lives near to Huddersfield town centre, appeared at Kirklees Magistrates’ Court.

He pleaded guilty to charges of attempted robbery, possession of a kitchen knife and assault.

The court was told that he walked into the newsagents, part of a row of terraced properties, at 5.15pm on New Year’s Eve.

Ratnaruby Sureshkumar was working alone in the shop at the time when the shop’s bell rang to signal that someone had entered.

Alex Bozman, prosecuting, said: “She looked towards the door and saw a man with a scarf over his face.

“He moved quickly to the till with a kitchen knife with a six-inch blade pointed towards her.

“Then he said: ‘Give me your f*****g money’.”

The court heard that the shopkeeper agreed to do so but pressed an alarm.

As she did this the teenager left the shop as customer Andrew Stewart was entering.

Mr Stewart suffered a one to two inch cut to his forearm as the teenager fled with the knife still in his hand.

Mr Bozman said that the tartan scarf that he was wearing belonged to a 16-year-old girl.

He added: “She confirmed she lent him the scarf and he made admissions afterwards about trying to rob the shop.”

Bob Carr, for the teenager who cannot be named, described the incident as a moment of madness.

He said: “He’s got a lot of growing up to do. Hopefully this will not destroy the rest of his life.”

Judge Fanning committed the teenager to Leeds Crown Court to be sentenced by a judge.

He said that the starting point for the offence was well in excess of three years which is beyond a magistrates court’s sentencing powers.

Judge Fanning told him: “This is clearly a pre-planned escapade. You’ve gone in there with a scarf borrowed from another juvenile used to disguise (you).

“The shop was manned by a female worker who is vulnerable and the premises was targeted for that reason.

“The implement was capable of causing significant injury and injury was caused to somebody else on your way out.”

The teenager will be sentenced at the crown court on February 5.