Neil Gordon (33) of Longcliff Hill, Old Dalby, attacked and robbed Jitandra Patel at Supamac in Grange Drive with a six inch blade last year.

At Leicester Crown Court in March, Judge Michael Pert QC, sentenced Gordon to an 18 month community order with supervision and was made to undergo a drugs rehab course.

On Tuesday, the Solicitor-General, Vera Baird QC, attacked the community sentence as "unduly lenient" and asked Lord Judge, the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales sitting with Mr Justice Simon and Mr Justice Blair at the Criminal Appeal Court in London, to put Gordon behind bars.

Lord Judge said Gordon should have been sent to jail but he was not now going to interfere in what he thought was a successful rehabilitation.

Speaking after the case, Mr Patel said: "At the time I felt he should have gone to jail. I was worried he might do it again, not necessarily to me but to someone else.

"But if he is off the drugs and doesn't commit any crimes he can make a better life for himself. That's fair enough, it's a good decision. But I don't think I can ever forgive him for what he did. He upset my life."

Gordon stabbed Mr Patel in the arm and slashed his hand when he tried to protect his till in September, 2008, making off with £670.

Mr Patel chased him out of the shop and down the street only stopping when he realised he was bleeding.

Gordon was arrested the next day and admitted the offence along with two more for possession of three wraps of crack cocaine and a bladed article.

The Appeal Court heard that Gordon joined the Army when he was 18 but left when three colleagues were killed in a car bomb attack in Northern Ireland.

He suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and developed an increasing drugs problem.

At the hearing on Tuesday, Lord Judge said: "The appropriate sentence should have been one of immediate custody. The message must be clear – shopkeepers performing valuable services to their local communities must be protected."

But he added: "We believe an order which would return the offender to prison would be counter-productive to the public interest and the rehabilitation of a still relatively young man whose offending began after his experiences of serving as a soldier.

"To enable this offender to put his drug use behind him, we have decided that it would not now be appropriate to vary the order."

*Read the story of Gordon's original court case online at www.meltontimes.co.uk/news/Is-this-justice.5091726.jp