A knife-wielding robber who targeted three young men on the London Underground has been jailed for four and a half years.

Fabian Pawlowski, 22, of Banstead, Surrey, forced his victims to hand over their phones during a robbery spree on the Tube that lasted from April 27 to May 15.

Pawlowski was sentenced at Harrow Crown Court on Friday, October 9, after pleading guilty to three counts of robbery and two counts of possession of a bladed article at an earlier hearing.

The court heard how, at around 1.40pm on Monday, April 27, Pawlowski boarded a Metropolitan Line Tube train at Harrow-on-the Hill station

On board he fist-bumped a man and sat opposite him before asking if he could use his mobile phone to make a call. The man reluctantly handed over his phone and Pawlowski then got off the train at Northwick Park.

The victim followed Pawlowski, asking for his phone back. He was punched in the face and then left after spotting what he believed to be a knife in Pawlowski’s fist.

Three days later, on April 30, Pawlowski returned to Harrow-on-the Hill station and walked up to a man before shoving his hand into the man’s jeans pocket.

The victim was threatened, and believing he was going to be stabbed, he let him take his phone, worth over £1,000.

On May 15, Pawlowski approached a man on a Jubilee line train travelling between Canning Town and North Greenwich. He began eyeing up the man’s phone and became aggressive, then pulled two blades out of his pocket. Pawlowski took the phone and left the train.

Pawlowski was identified by BTP detectives after they circulated a wanted appeal using CCTV stills. He was arrested by patrolling BTP officers at Stratford station on June 16.

He pleaded guilty to charges in July after he was shown a file of concrete evidence, including CCTV footage linking Pawlowski to each of the robberies.

BTP Detective Constable Olesia Berdova said: “Pawlowski is a serial offender who set out to intimidate his victims, using threatening language as well as a knife to force his victims to hand over their mobile phones.

“Pawlowski’s actions have caused significant distress and fear and I am pleased that he will now spend a substantial amount of time behind bars.

“BTP has been working hard to reduce the number of robberies across the railway network in recent years, and this case demonstrates that when they do still occur, we will never let up in the fight to take down robbers.

"Every report of robbery is taken extremely seriously, and I urge anyone who is the victim of, or witness to, this offending to report it to us by texting 61016."