TWO brothers who targeted lone women in a string of violent strangulation robberies across Barnet were jailed today.

Matthew Mykoo, 27, of Windsor Road, Brent will serve at least nine years in prison after being handed an indeterminate sentence for public protection at Wood Green Crown Court.

Daniel Mykoo, 29, from Fulham, will serve a minimum of 14 years after being handed a life sentence, after admitting 19 robberies and asking for 65 more to be taken into consideration.

Of these 69 were strangulation robberies, leading barrister Nicholas Brown QC to describe him as one of the most violent robbers to be sentenced in London in recent years.

Detective Constable Reg Pickering, of Barnet CID, said: "During the course of this investigation we have obtained overwhelming evidence which has assisted us with the conviction of these two brothers.

"The level of violence used in these attacks is extremely unusual and a number of boroughs worked closely together to identify a common link and to bring the Mykoo brothers to justice.

"I am extremely pleased that we were able to recover some particularly sentimental items of jewellery to their rightful owners as a result of visiting a number of pawn shops."

The pair were arrested by Barnet police on June 24 last year after a cash collection van driver saw them acting suspiciously in Fairfax Avenue.

Police traced the Volkswagen Golf they were using that day as belonging to a victim of a previous robbery, when Daniel had grabbed her from behind and threatened her with a knife.

She pleaded with him "Please don't kill me, please don't kill me" and threw her handbag across the pavement, which contained her car keys and address details.

The victim then went away for four days and returned to find the car had been stolen from outside her home.

The pair then used the car with false plates in a string of other attacks across the capital, some of which were captured on CCTV.

Officers searched both of their homes and seized a number of items which were later discovered to be from the robberies, and several pawn shop tickets led to police recovering more valuables including one man's wedding ring.

Both men were bailed during the investigation and rearrested on June 25 outside Matthew's home.

Daniel was convicted of seven counts of robbery on June 24 this year after pleading not guilty to 13 robberies and admitted three others.