TWO men charged with committing separate knifepoint robberies against taxi drivers within minutes of each other have been locked up.

Michael Glancy and Lee Gray are accused of carrying out the alleged hold-ups in Port Glasgow on Saturday April 18.

Detectives were hunting suspects following raids on two cabs at around 4am in different parts of the town.

Police said that the drivers of the vehicles had been left 'badly shaken' following the incidents.

Glancy, 35, and Gray, 37 — both of Port Glasgow — appeared separately in private on petition at Paisley Sheriff Court and made no plea.

It's alleged that a man wearing a black and white Halloween-type mask threatened one cabbie with a knife and grabbed a two-figure sum of money in Grampian Road at 3.50am.

In the other reported incident, police say the driver was robbed after taking a man from an address in Greenock to the Port.

A knifeman is alleged to have pulled a blade on the driver and then fled with the taxi's keys and a piece of equipment from the vehicle following a physical struggle.

Accused Gray appeared in court charged with two counts of alleged robbery and one of possession of a sharply pointed or bladed item.

Glancy is facing one charge of robbery, one of blade possession and another of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner.

Sheriff Sukwhinder Gill has remanded both men in custody and has continued their cases for further examination.

They are both due to be back in the dock this next week.