A GANG member who terrorised a family at gunpoint at their Kidderminster home has been given eight years detention.

Philip Gayle, 18, of Sparkhill, Birmingham, was part of a gang which carried out a campaign of terror by bursting into homes at night and forcing owners to hand over keys to expensive cars.

The armed robbers were masked and carried guns, knives, machete and a poker, said Jonathon Gosling, prosecuting at Worcester Crown Court. Two other gang members have never been caught.

Gayle was sent to a young offenders' institution after pleading guilty to robbery, possessing a firearm with intent to commit an offence, driving while disqualified and without insurance.

The first robbery last August was in Hagley when a family was watching TV at 9.30pm, said Mr Gosling. The wife went to answer the front door when three heavily-disguised men burst in armed with a gun and a metal poker.

The woman, her husband and 18-year-old son were put in fear of their lives. One of the robbers held a gun within inches of the woman's head.

The family handed over the keys of a Peugeot 206 GTi and it was driven off. Mr Gosling said the husband was so traumatised by the incident that he had been forced to give up his job as an accountant.

In September, the gang forced their way into a house in Roden Avenue, Kidderminster, armed with a gun, machete and butcher's knife. One of them held a gun to the head of a 10-year-old boy before they made off with a VW saloon from the driveway.

The householders, who were forced to go on their knees, were left in a traumatised condition.

Ten days later, the three repeated the crime at a house in Birmingham.

Gayle was eventually arrested after the gang broke into a house in Wythall, near Redditch, to take a sports car.

It was fitted with a tracking device and was picked up by police using cars and a helicopter.

As Gayle drove the car into Birmingham, it was recorded at 114mph in a 30mph area. He was arrested at a block of flats in Edgbaston.

Graham Henson, defending, conceded it was an appalling case but Gayle had been only 17 at the time.

He acknowledged that he could have been facing a 12-15 year sentence had he been older.