TWO Bolton men who robbed a former friend, threatened to throw him to his death from his high rise flat if he told police.

Bolton Crown Court was told that Darren Yates, aged 29, and Mark Hignett, 20, both of Bromwich Street, Bolton were desperate for money to buy drugs when they committed the robbery in January 1995.

Yates and Hignett used electrical flex to tie up Neil Dennison at his flat at Rogerstead, Deane. They gagged him with a sponge and kicked him before ransacking his flat and stealing property worth £1,500.

They also stole Mr Dennison's cashpoint card and forced him to reveal his PIN number. And they threatened to return and throw him off the balcony of his flat if he reported them to the police, said Mark Lamberty prosecuting.

Mr Dennison managed to free himself and reported the robbery to the police who arrested the two men.

Hignett and Yates admitted they had obtained about £40 each from the sale of property taken from Mr Dennison's flat.

Both men pleaded guilty to robbery charges.

"It was a carefully planned and cowardly robbery," Recorder Richard Brittain told them.

He sent Yates to prison for three years and ordered Hignett to be detained at a Young Offenders' Institution for the same period.

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