A DOZY robber was collared after booking a taxi to drive him away from a raid.

Mark Rowell even gave a tip from the £5,500 he had just stolen.

The convicted robber, 38, terrified travel agency staff when he held them up with a fake pistol and forced them to empty their tills.

He then fled the scene in a pre-booked cab, telling the driver to drop him off near his Newcastle home.

He even gave the cabbie £4 of the cash stolen from the shop in Forest Hall, North Tyneside.

But the suspicious driver alerted police after seeing Rowell dump his hoodie