John Kelly, 38, robbed his victim, who had been walking his dog before making a cash withdrawal, outside the Nisa shop in Bury Road, Breightmet on September 5 last year.
Bolton Crown Court heard how his victim had been withdrawing money from benefits payments just after midnight, which he needed to help see him through the next few weeks.
Prosecutor Alison Mather said: “He went up to the cash machine in order to withdraw £250 at the Nisa shop located on Bury Road.”
But Ms Mather told the court that Kelly had been “hiding behind a car” and came out to take the money.
The case was heard at Bolton Crown Court (Image: Anthony Moss) The victim was forced to give Kelly the money who then threatened to “break his neck”.
Ms Mather said that the whole ordeal had affected the victim’s mental health and left him fearful about his surroundings.
But just weeks earlier Kelly had been involved in another unrelated crime when he assaulted a different man who he had had a personal dispute with at a pub.
On August 19 the man had been reading a newspaper at the bar when Kelly came in a “shouted at him to go outside”.
The dispute between them spiralled and Kelly hit the man to the left hand side of his face, badly injuring him.
Brought before the courts Kelly, who has 21 previous convictions for 39 offences, pleaded guilty to robbery and a section 20 assault.
Charlotte Rimmer, defending, said that Kelly deserved credit for admitting his crimes and said that he his “genuine remorse is evident”.
She pointed out that he had already spent six months in prison and that despite his criminal record he had avoided any offences apart from these two since 2016.
Ms Rimmer said that Kelly was now a “completely different man” from the one who had gone into prison six months ago.
Judge Rachel Galloway accepted that Kelly, of HMP Altcourse, deserved credit for admitting his crimes and accepted he had “strong personal mitigation”.
But she reminded the court of the effect that he had had on his victims.
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Turning to the man he had robbed, Judge Galloway said that he had been left “worried how he was going to support himself”.
She sentenced Kelly to 20 months in prison, suspended for two years and ordered him to complete a two-year building choices programme.
Judge Galloway also ordered him to complete 30 rehabilitation activity requirement days, with a nine-month drug rehabilitation activity requirement.
She ordered Kelly to pay £250 compensation to the man he had robbed and hit him with a five-year restraining order against the man he had assaulted in the pub.
