A desperate drug addict who stabbed a bus driver twice in the face during an attempted robbery has been jailed for six years.

Keighley and District Travel driver Alan Daniel was left permanently scarred after Thomas Simpson lashed out with a knife when he refused to hand over a cash bag.

Simpson had been lying in wait in Hanover Street, Keighley, and when Mr Daniel's bus pulled in to the stop, he boarded the bus and made a grab for the cash bag in his cab.

When the driver grabbed Simpson's arm he was struck twice in the face and forced to release his grip.

An artery on the right side of Mr Daniel's face was cut during the terrifying attack last September, but he was still able to drive his bus back the company's offices before being taken by ambulance to hospital.

As well as a one-and-a-half centimetre cut to the right side of his face, Mr Daniel also suffered another superficial cut to his left cheek, the Court heard.

Prosecutor Henry Prosser told Bradford Crown Court that Mr Daniel, who is in his 40s, had to be given fluids to replace the blood he had lost and was kept in Airedale Hospital overnight.

Mr Prosser said it was the Crown's case that the robbery had been planned, and he highlighted the fact that Simpson had hidden a change of clothing in a nearby graveyard.

Two witnesses saw him in the graveyard after the failed robbery in Hanover Street, Keighley, and one of them recovered a blood-stained baseball cap.

The court heard that the Sunday evening attack had been captured on video equipment in the bus and Simpson was recognised by police officers.

He was arrested the following day and told police where they could find the discarded blade.

The 24-year-old, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to charges of attempted robbery and wounding before Christmas, and on Wednesday Judge James Spencer QC jailed him after hearing he had a string of previous convictions dating back to 1992.

He said Mr Daniel had been working anti-social hours for the good of the public in a public service, and like other such workers he deserved to be protected.

"You that day, because of your abuse of heroin, found yourself desperate for money,'' he told Simpson.

"You decided you would rob someone like Mr Daniel and so you armed yourself with a knife.

"You prepared by taking a change of clothing and you went off and you lay in wait for him. When his bus stopped you boarded the bus and then attempted to rob him.

"When he showed resistance, without any qualms whatsoever, you stabbed him. You stabbed him twice in the face so he was severely injured and now scarred for life.''

He said the offences were aggravated by the fact that there was a degree of preparation and Mr Daniel was employed in a public service.

"This is serious and the sentence must be long so you know, and others know, they can't behave in this evil way,'' he added.

Simpson's barrister Nicholas Askins had explained that earlier in the day Simpson and his girlfriend, who also used heroin, had argued about their lack of money.

He said Simpson had the knife with him to cause fear, but when Mr Daniel showed great courage and presence of mind to resist he panicked and instinctively lashed out, forgetting that he had the knife in his hand.

Mr Askins said when Simpson returned to his girlfriend's home he was nearly crying.

"He was, in short, really quite horrified at what he had done and how things had got out of control,'' he added.

He said Simpson had expressed remorse and his time in custody had allowed him to reflect on the direction his life was going in.