A serial street robber has been jailed for 40 months after he got his come-uppance when he tried to mug two Bradford schoolboys.

Liam Moore ran off, chased by the boys who called the police, Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday.

It was Moore’s fifth conviction for robbery offences on the streets of Bradford in seven years.

He was warned by Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC that the sentences would only get longer if he did not change his ways.

Moore, 25, of Longfield Drive, East Bowling, Bradford, pleaded guilty to attempting to rob the two teenagers in the Otley Road area of Bradford on January 28.

Prosecutor Richard Butters told the court Moore demanded: “Give me your phones or I’ll beat you up.”

He raised his fists and threw a punch at one boy and drew a knife.

The teenagers initially backed off and ran away and Moore pursued them, hurling a brick and a lump of wood at them.

The lads then turned the tables on their tormentor and chased him along Otley Road.

Moore hurled racist abuse at the boys as he ran off down a footpath and through a block of flats, Mr Butters said.

He then went into a house where he was arrested after the boys called the police.

Moore, who was recalled to jail, was locked up pending sentence.

He had four previous Bradford Crown Court convictions for street robberies.

He was sent to a young offender institution for nine months in 2007 for hitting a young man in the face, dragging him to the ground and stealing his money.

Moore struck again the following year when he robbed a takeaway delivery driver of cash.

In May 2011, he was imprisoned for 33 months for punching two men in the street and snatching their phones.

Moore’s barrister, Yunus Valli, said the latest offences were “unplanned and opportunistic”. Nothing was taken and the victims were uninjured.

Judge Durham Hall commended the resolve of the boys who chased Moore off.

After the case, Detective Inspector Richard Partis, of Bradford District CID, said: “This sentence makes clear the dim view that the police and courts have with regard to robbery offences.

“Anyone considering involving themselves in such crimes must realise that we take incidents of this nature extremely seriously and they will be robustly dealt with.”