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(Image: PA / MET POLICE)

Yahya Rashid, 19, blagged his way onto an electronics course at Middlesex University in London using forged documents in a bid to pocket more than £6,300 in grants.

Rashid spent the cash on flights to Turkey so he and four pals could travel to war-torn Syria to become IS foot soldiers.

And despite having a below average IQ of just 65, the teen managed to outfox suspicious cops at Gatwick Airport in February this year.

Rashid, together with Khalid Abdul-Rahman and Ibrahim Amouri, tricked their way onto a plane to Morocco after claiming they were looking for LOVE - not war.

(Image: PA)

They travelled to an ISIS safe house on the Syrian border with fellow jihadis Swaleh Mohammed and his wife, Deqo Osman.

But Rashid got cold feet and returned to Britain after his family begged him to come home.

The others stayed in the Syrian war zone and their whereabouts are unknown.

Rashid was arrested at Luton airport on March 31.

He denied preparing to commit an act of terrorism and assisting others to commit acts of terrorism.

Sentencing, Judge Philip Katz QC told him: He added: "Goodness knows what you would have gone on to do as a foot-soldier for ISIS.

"I'm not sure why you changed your mind and came back, but I'm inclined to think that it was to save your own skin.

"Luckily for you, your loving family still supports you."

(Image: MET POLICE)

Rashid - who had liked terror videos on social media, paid £906 on lastminute.com for return tickets to Marrakech, in Morocco.

The group, who knew each other through Wembley Mosque in north west London, had "sympathies with Islamic extremism", the court heard.

And Rashid's Google+ account had been used to make comments, including "I am leaving Britain soon. I just need to get some money #Fly #Daesh."

Another, allegedly posted by Rashid, said: "I want to leave this country, it's a bad country with bad people and no faith in God. I'm leaving in 2 days."

Rashid was found guilty following a trial at London's Woolwich Crown Court.

Prosecutor Mark Weekes told jurors: "It does not matter whether or not Mr Rashid went into Syria.

"The fact that he changed his mind about this at the very last minute is welcome - he did not carry on to join those in IS activity engaged in fighting.

"However, the offence with which you are concerned was complete several weeks previously.

"The offence, say the prosecution, was complete at the point when he purchased the tickets on lastminute.com.

"That was a preparatory act to going, and when he did it he intended, in the future, to commit an act or acts of terrorism by fighting alongside IS."

Defending, Mark McDonald told the court that Rashid had been "radicalised" and had "no intention" of fighting with the terror group.

Rashid, of Willesden, northwest London, will serve his sentence in a young offenders' institution.

He will also have a terrorism notification requirement for 15 years.