TWO men who beat and robbed a taxi driver before stealing his cab have been jailed.

Craig Torkington and Daniel Ashcroft took £50 in cash and the taxi was later found wrecked in a garden.

A few days later Ashcroft attacked and beat twin 60-year-old brothers in an unprovoked assault.

Torkington, aged 19, of Malton Avenue, Deane, Bolton, and Ashcroft, aged 22, of Nixon Road, Bolton, appeared at Bolton Crown Court for sentence.

Torkington and Ashcroft were jointly charged with robbing the taxi driver.

Ashcroft was further charged with two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm against the 60-year-old twin brothers.

Their night of violence cost them their freedom when Judge John Roberts jailed Ashcroft for three years and Torkington was sent to a Young Offenders' Institution for two years.

The court heard that both men had been for a night out at the Atlantis nightclub in Bolton.

Around 3am on April 15, a taxi from the Red Lion private hire company in Chorley Old Road pulled up at the club looking for a fare which had been booked over the radio.

Instead, Torkington and Ashcroft jumped in and told the driver to go to Barley Road in Deane and then to Malton Avenue.

When the driver stopped and asked for the £6 fare the men grabbed him, demanded money and threatened to kill him.

The terrified cabbie was dragged out of his vehicle and punched but managed to break free and run off.

The men took £50 in takings and drove off in the taxi.

Both men had been captured on CCTV outside Atlantis and were identified by police officers who knew them. DNA analysis of blood in the taxi led police to Torkington.

Several days later, Ashcroft attacked 60-year-old twin brothers Alan and Brian Grundy while they were at home with their sister and a friend.

Ashcroft was refused entry to the brothers' flat via an electronic door but waited until the sister left and then forced his way inside.

He ran up the stairs, punching Alan Grundy in the chest knocking him out of the way.

He then punched and kicked Brian Grundy to the floor, but was eventually restrained until the police arrived to arrest him.

Both men had previous convictions but none for robbery. Both said they had drunk a lot and could remember little of the incident.

Judge John Roberts said that the courts had a duty to protect vulnerable people like taxi drivers by severely punishing those who attacked them to deter others.