Two former heroin addicts who robbed a string of off-licences using a stun gun have been jailed for a total of 18 years.

Andrew Power and Paul Owens-Russell, both 24, were found guilty of five armed robberies and two attempted robberies at off-licences in West Sussex from August 19 to September 16 last year.

Power, a tree surgeon from Frandor Road, Bognor, and Owens-Russell, a former milkman from Stroud Green Drive, Bognor, used a stun gun to threaten staff while they demanded money.

They fired the gun on two occasions, once hitting an employee who was saved from injury by a calculator in his shirt pocket.

Power and Owens-Russell looked shocked as Judge John Sessions sentenced them to nine years each at Chichester Crown Court yesterday.

Judge Sessions took into account their previous good characters, their drug addiction and said they were unlikely to reoffend.

He indicated without such litigation he would have sentenced them to 12 years each.

Judge Sessions said: "Both of you are, in my judgement, of a character making it unlikely you will reoffend.

"You have been described widely as pleasant young men. It is a sadness to see people like you standing in the dock charged with offences like this."

Both had only become hooked on heroin six months to a year before the crimes took place.

However, the judge said he could not excuse the aggravating features of the case. He said: "First of all you used a stun gun. I bear in mind this was a disabler, not a lethal weapon.

"One of your victims was a woman. In each case the victims were vulnerable in the sense that they were working in a shop late at night."

Between August and September the two men robbed £1,500 of goods and cash from Unwins in Chichester Road, Bognor, Victoria Wine in Sea Road, East Preston, Unwins in Barnham, Thresher in The Square, Angmering, Thresher in High Street, Billingshurst, Thresher in Middleton Road, Middleton, and Victoria Wine in Rose Green Road, Bognor.

Speaking after the verdict, Michael Newland from Billingshurst described the moment the robbers confronted him while he was working in his local branch of Thresher.

He said: "I felt an impact on my chest and heard a thud behind me. I looked and they had shot me with the stun gun but it had hit the calculator in my breast pocket and the impact made it fly out on to the floor.

"I was serving one of them at the time and had just opened the till. As soon as it happened I pushed the panic button and confronted them. They swore and ran off.

"For a while after I couldn't cope with working on my own in the shop during the evening. I couldn't face it because of what had happened."

Mr Newland, 57, no longer works at Thresher and is unemployed.

The men were caught thanks to a campaign by the media. Outside the court Detective Inspector Jeff Riley said: "I am pleased with the successful outcome of this investigation and I hope the substantial sentence imposed on both defendants will act as a deterrent for others who are minded to embark on this type of crime.

"We caught them through media coverage of the case."