Ruthless muggers who robbed a man within minutes of him leaving a bank with more than £2,000 in cash have been jailed for a total of more than seven years.

Richard Collins, also known as Ricky, and Craig Dunn targeted their victim after spotting him withdrawing the money from a branch of HSBC in Folkestone on July 11.

A court heard they followed him down the street, threatened to "knock him out" and then snatched the bag containing the money.

The man, described as retired and in his 60s, was left feeling anxious and vulnerable following the traumatic ordeal, particularly as he had suffered a broken neck just two years earlier.

He later told police that had the bag handles not snapped, he feared sustaining further injury in a struggle.

Canterbury Crown Court heard the pair, who between them have 56 previous convictions for 94 offences, had been at the counter next to their victim and saw him being handed his money, totalling £2,200.

The cash was intended as payment for building work at his property, said prosecutor Rio Pahlavanpour.

By the time he left the bank, 30-year-old Dunn was still carrying out his transaction while Collins, 39, was already outside.

The victim then realised he had left his glasses case behind and went back inside to retrieve it, the court was told. Dunn was still at the counter.

But when the customer emerged from the bank for a second time, he heard Collins mutter something before realising he was being followed by both defendants, said the prosecutor.

"Collins made the demand 'Give me the bag or I'll beat you up',” he told the court.

“Both then came towards him in a threatening manner, Collins with his fists raised and saying words to the effect of 'give me the bag or I'll knock you out'.”

It was at that point that Dunn snatched the bag and they fled.

In a statement read to the court, Mr Pahlavanpour said the victim felt "foolish and annoyed" for not having taken sufficient security measures when he left the bank and that he should have been more alert.

He also described suffering "shock and trauma" with the mugging "bringing home to him" how vulnerable he was.

Detailing the man's concerns over unrelated injuries he had previously suffered in 2020 and 2021, the prosecutor added: "He said: 'It's fortunate they got the bag without a struggle when the straps broke'."

The money was not recovered and he had to withdraw more from his savings to pay for the property works, it was said.

Nine months earlier, on October 21 last year, Collins and another accomplice had robbed a man in his 50s of his wallet on a night-out in Ramsgate.

On that occasion, the victim had left the pub at about 10.30pm and withdrawn money from a cashpoint to buy food when he was grabbed from behind in Albion Place, dragged into a park and pinned to the ground.

Mr Pahlavanpour said the incident was captured by a Ring doorbell, and Collins and the second mugger were later identified from a shop’s CCTV showing them trying to use the man's stolen bank card.

Collins, a former potato factory senior manager, of Plains of Waterloo, Ramsgate, pleaded guilty to two offences of robbery and was jailed for a total of four-and-a-half years.

Dunn, a painter and decorator of Westbury Road, Dover, pleaded guilty to one offence of robbery and was imprisoned for two years and eight months.

The court heard Collins has 13 previous convictions for 21 offences, while Dunn has 43 previous convictions for 73 offences.

Jailing the pair last week, Judge Simon Taylor KC said they had left the bank robbery victim "with a legacy of feeling anxious and vulnerable".

"All because you wanted something that didn't belong to you," he added.

Kieran Brand, defending Collins, said he had had "a difficult upbringing to say the least", growing up in the care system and attending 11 different schools while living in 56 different homes.

Although his history of "minor offending" dated back to 1999, there was a 10-year gap when Collins was in a relationship, became a father and worked, said Mr Brand.

“Both then came towards him in a threatening manner, Collins with his fists raised and saying words to the effect of 'give me the bag or I'll knock you out'...”

However, the break-up with his partner in 2017 led to his life "being blighted by heroin" and was the "catalyst" for the robberies, the barrister told the court.

Collins was also homeless and an alcoholic at the time.

Dunn, who has ADHD, was also said by his barrister James Burke to have relapsed into drug misuse but wanted to "break the cycle of coming out of prison and reoffending".

Collins's accomplice in the Ramsgate robbery was jailed for three years earlier this year.