Two men who attacked and held post office staff hostage in a series of raids across north Wales and England have been jailed for 16 years.

The post office at Cefn-y-Bedd was targeted

John Barlow, 39, and Alan Motion, 34, from Liverpool, netted almost �500,000 in the 18-month series of raids on sub-post offices during 2000 and 2001.

Seven of the robberies were at post offices in Flintshire and on Anglesey, the remainder in the English Midlands.

They were convicted by a majority verdict at Chester Crown Court of conspiracy to rob after a 11-week trial.

Judge Elgan Edwards recommended they serve at least 12 years of their sentence after hearing they had been jailed in the past for similar crimes.

Three other men Stephen Barlow, 38, Paul Malloy, 35, and Duane Daniel Trussell, 39 were all acquitted.

The men were captured by police using hi-tech DNA and fibre evidence and tracking devices.

The trial was held at Chester Crown Court

All five men had denied the charges.

John Barlow and Motion will be sentenced later on Monday for their involvement in raids at 18 post offices, seven of which were in Wales.

Judge Edwards said the case had involved allegations of serious robberies including serious violence.

Their robbery campaign started in May 2000 and ended in November 2001 when a joint police operation of 150 officers led to early-morning raids on addresses in north Liverpool.

One Holyhead postmaster - Frank Jones - told how he was attacked in his home in May 2000, theatened with a knife and feared he was having a heart attack.

In the second robbery at the Anglesey post office in April 2001, Mr Jones said he was kicked and punched and his wife was threatened.

The two raids netted the men �150,000.

The jury, who took nearly 19 hours to reach their majority verdicts, heard the raiders had punched and threatened a 60-year-old postmistress at her home in Buckley, Deeside.

Police carried out early-morning raids

They forced her to travel several miles to the post office to open the safe before making off with �21,500.

A post office in Cefn-y-Bedd, near Wrexham, was also targeted.

The court heard men brandishing a crowbar, a chisel and a screwdriver burst in on postmaster Melvin Kenneally and his wife Ingrid at their home.

They bound and gagged the couple while they waited for a time-lock on a safe to be released.

The pair were tied up and watched over for nine hours.

Prosecutor Peter Hughes QC, told the court, the men left Mr and Mrs Kenneally still gagged and escaped with �22,000.

The two targeted three post offices twice and one - in Frodsham, Cheshire - twice in less than five weeks.

'Ruthless determination'

The five would use high-powered stolen cars to make their getaway or use their victims' vehicles to escape with cash ranging from �1,000 to �100,000.

Other robberies carried out, some at gunpoint, took place in Flintshire and hits across the border were in Cheshire, Staffordshire, Merseyside and Ashby de la Zouch in Leicestershire.

The men, who had an extensive knowledge of security systems, often wore balaclavas and would lay in wait inside post offices for staff to open up.

Mr Hughes QC said the robberies "required careful planning and organisation" and the men had shown a "sense of purpose and a ruthless determination to see the thing through".