MEMBERS of an armed gang who robbed a late night store were put behind bars for a total of 22 years yesterday.

Gangleader Jonathan May, 21, who threatened staff with a loaded sawn-off shotgun was jailed for 10 years.

Judge John Walford said at Teesside Crown Court that the raid on Bells store in Shannon Crescent, Stockton, was a shocking crime.

Jonathan Grieve,17, who also admitted robbing a 77-year-old woman in a street mugging, was sentenced to six years detention.

The third member of the hooded gang, which struck in October 1999, was Christopher Fretter, 20, who was also sentenced to six years in a young offender's institution.

Prosecutor Mio Silvester said the gang fled with a small amount of cash, phone cards and cigarettes.

They were caught on the store's three security cameras, and the police used experts in facial mapping to identify the faces hidden by black hoods.

They had a breakthrough when the hoods were found ditched in a black bin liner, which provided DNA and fingerprint evidence implicating Fetter and Grieve.

Grieve confessed his guilt in prison to his mother, and she made a statement to the police.

Judge John Walford, who was told at Teesside Crown Court that the loaded shotgun was recovered, commended the police team's work.

The three, who all pleaded guilty, were heroin users.

May, of Donnington Crescent, Netherfields, Middlesbrough, had two previous convictions for robbery.

Fretter and Grieve both lived in Bowesfield Lane, Stockton.