A gang of robbers who held up a string of cash vans were caught after one of them shot two men in a Tooting hostel.

Gladstone Allen, 20, of Huntingfield Road, Putney, and Andre Abrahams, 26, of Tennyson Street, Battersea, were both convicted of two counts of attempted murder, possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and robbery.

Romaine Gayle, 18, of Wandle Way, Wandsworth, and Ishmael Baptiste, 21, of Mitcham, were both jailed for robbery.

The first of five robberies took place in Clapham High Street on August 4, 2010 where a G4S employee was assaulted and cash stolen.

The suspects left the scene in a silver VW Golf which was later found to be registered to Abrahams.

Four further robberies, over the next three months, convinced detectives they were all committed by the same gang.

The subsequent robberies took place in Battersea Park Road, on September 22, outside Clapham Junction station, on October 26, by McDonalds, Wandsworth, on November 1, and at the Total Petrol Station, Lower Richmond Road, Richmond, on November 16.

Police were able to link a shooting at a hostel in Ritherdon Road, Tooting, on August 13, to two of the gang, Abrahams and Allen.

During the incident Allen fired five times at two victims, a 31-year-old man who was shot in the leg and a 22-year-old man who was shot in the head, neck and buttock.

Both victims made full recoveries from their injuries and were present at the trial.

Abrahams and Allen were sentenced to 10 years and eight years respectively at Kingston Crown Court on Friday for the robberies together with indeterminate sentences for the two attempted murders.

Baptiste and Gayle both admitted the robberies and were sentenced to seven-and-a-half-years and six years imprisonment respectively.

Detective Superintendent Tony Nash, of Trident, said: "Their actions blighted the lives of terrified and innocent people caught up in the cash-in-transit robberies they committed for no other reason than their own greed."