TWO men who robbed a Securicor guard at gunpoint, stealing £20,000, have been jailed for a total of eight and a half years.

Masked Dean Harris, 28, formerly of Kingsley Lane, Benfleet, ran up behind guard Rachel Purkiss outside the Aldi store in Wickford, in November, 2006, and pointed a gun at her.

The terrified security guard threw her cash box at Harris, who then escaped in a Mini, driven by 21-year-old James Quinn.

Harris committed the offences while on bail for his part in an earlier £7,500 Securicor raid, outside Barclay's Bank, in Benfleet.

The money from that raid was stained with dye and dumped in Rayleigh Road, Thundersley.

Harris had admitted two counts of robbery and possessing a firearm with intent to commit an indictable offence at an earlier hearing.

Quinn, of Manford Close, Chigwell, admitted robbery.

At Basildon Crown Court yesterday, Recorder Simon Spence told Harris he should be locked up to protect the public.

Jailing him for seven years, he said he should serve at least three and a half before being considered for release.

Sentencing Quinn to 18 months in jail, Mr Spence said: "You were not to know Harris was armed with a gun and you were not to know the nature of the robbery you had lent yourself to, but it was a serious offence by anyone's standards."