AN ARMED gang who terrorised staff at pubs and restaurants across Leeds have been jailed for a total of 50 years.

The six robbers used knives, machetes, hammers and meat cleavers to threaten their victims at six business across the city in the space of just one month. Police say staff were left traumatised by their ordeals.

The first robbery happened at The Bridge Inn, in Horsforth, in the early hours of August 5, last year, when three masked men armed with knives threatened staff and customers before stealing more than £1,500.

On August 16 they raided The Myrtle Tavern in Meanwood shortly after closing time. Two members of bar staff managed to escape but a woman who had been asleep upstairs was confronted by a masked man armed with a knife. She too managed to escape and the gang made their getaway with £2,000.

In one incident – a robbery at The Travellers Rest pub in Armley on August 19 – an eight-year-old boy witnessed the robbers threatening the manager at knifepoint before hitting him over the head with a metal bar.

On August 25, The Dalesman pub in West Park was targeted. Masked men armed with a meat-tenderising hammer and a 24-inch machete burst in and threatened the landlady and two of her friends, holding a knife to the neck of one of them.The landlady was thrown to the floor by her hair before being hit with the hammer when she tried to pull one of the robbers masks off. The men stole £700. The Angel pub in Rothwell was raided on August 26. A 12-inch knife was held to the throat of the manager before robbers left with more than £12,000 in cash.

In the final raid four masked men armed with knives and a meat cleaver ran into Gusto in Cookridge as staff were clearing up for the night on September 4. Ringleaders Darren Phelan and Thomas Silverwood were arrested in Kirkstall along with Michael Bennett on September 14. A holdall found on the back seat of their car contained a “robbery kit” including gloves, masks, cable ties, knives and other weapons. Officers used taser to subdue Phelan. Three further arrests followed. Detective Inspector John Dexter, of Leeds District CID, said: “The victims were confronted by intimidating masked figures armed with a frightening array of weapons.

“These men are utterly lawless and it is clear they would have continued to commit other similar offences had we not stopped them. The significant sentences they have received should serve as a reminder to others of how seriously offences of this nature will be treated.”

Darren Phelan, 37, of Carrholm Road, Meanwood, was jailed for 11 years and 10 months with an extended licence period taking his total sentence to 15 years.

Thomas Silverwood, 19, of Bowood Avenue, Meanwood, was sentenced to 12 years. Michael Bennett, 39, of Reginald Mount, Chapeltown, was jailed for four years and three months. Daniel Lyons, 21, of Sholebroke Street, Chapeltown, was sentenced to four years and nine months. Jermaine Wilkes, aged 40, of no fixed address, and Liam O’Neil, 21, of Sholebroke View, Chapeltown, were jailed for eight years.