'IT WAS my darkest moment.'

Leaving behind a trail of "destruction", the financial implications to businesses after a four-man gang carried out 21 burglaries and robberies in just 18 days across Southampton and Eastleigh are clear.

However, the impact left on the cashiers, business managers, customers and a taxi driver, is even more damaging.

Southampton Crown Court heard the actions of Kevin Owen, Andrew Havinga, Dean Highman and John Beesley left a lasting impression on each individual following a raid.

In some instances customers were left battered and bruised, others were struck with a variety of weapons ranging from glass bottles, claw hammers and large tree branches.

After being struck by a bottle and forced to hand over cash when BySea, a Sailor Society charity coffee shop on Portswood Road, was targeted, the on-duty manager said the incident had made him "go back to one of the darkest places I have ever been."

In a victim impact statement read to the court, he added: "I do not like to go out anymore and I carry a panic alarm. I question what sort of a person I was and am since this incident."

Others told of "fearing for their lives".

The manager of Mr Local, a shop on Thornhill Park Road, said after he was approached by Havinga and Owen: "I was very frightened, frightened for my life.

"In 20 years in retail, I have never experienced something like this.

"When I saw the hammer and stick, I feared for my life."

An on duty manger at Glitz hair salon, on Janson Road, was robbed, this time by Beesley and Highman - who was waiting in the car outside. She explained in a victim impact statement that she "was an emotional wreck".

She added: "Following the incident, I did not sleep for two days. I have reoccurring images the offender's face and him waving the hammer just inches from my face."

In the most startling CCTV footage shown to Southampton Crown Court, Owen was seen striking Eric Budd, the son of Heidi Budd, who runs S N A Supermarket, on Midanbury Lane, with hammer after the victim told him there was no cash in the till.

As Mr Budd fell to the ground, his mother is seen grabbing a cue stick from under the counter, and waving it at a fleeing Owen before screeching out her son's name in a worried manner only a mum can do.