Two teenage armed robbers who terrorised Jewish people during a spree of attacks around Hendon last year were undone by their bumbling incompetence', one of their victims said this week.

Julian Gilbey was pistol whipped and kicked in the head in a vicious attack at his own home, but described the two young men who were jailed for eight years at the Old Bailey on Friday as idiots who wanted to put on a show.

Jerome Bingham, 18, and Michael Sinclair, 17, were sentenced to eight years each after they carried out a string of ferocious attacks on eight Jewish people within the space of ten days in November and December last year.

Maths teacher Mr Gilbey, 31, who lives with four friends in Green Lane, Hendon, was asleep on December 14 when the two teenagers held up his housemate, Jack Young, with an imitation firearm as he parked outside his house.

After forcing him into the back of his car and driving him to a cashpoint near Hendon Central Tube station, they went back to the house and tied him up along with his other housemates Adrian and Graeme Alexander.

Mr Gibley said he feared his life was going to end when Sinclair went up to his room and held him at gunpoint, demanding his credit card. But he put up a fight.

"I began to feel that he was not good at this game, as he held the gun inches in front of my face," said Mr Gibley. "He was transfixed by money, so I thought, 'if he's going to kill us anyway, I'm not going out without a fight', so I attempted to push the gun out of his hand."

The gun was not loaded but Sinclair pistol-whipped him and kicked him in the head. Seeing Mr Gibley was bleeding, Sinclair, who had been joined by Bingham, suggested he have a glass of water and a banana and use his shirt to stem the flow of blood.

"By this stage it was getting quite astonishing, their ineptitude. Robbers or no robbers, this was not normal," said Mr Gilbey. "I was in blood-soaked pyjamas, it was very theatrical, and they were stealing things of no value, like a five-year-old stereo that cost only £50.

"At one point they tried out our vacuum cleaner to see if it worked, and were dancing round with it. In the meantime, they were threatening to castrate us if we told the police about the attack. It was very surreal."

He said they then gave themselves away by asking for directions to South Harrow, and after drinking a can of cola, left it at the house with DNA samples all over it.

"It was just a string of bumbling errors incompetence by bumbling idiots," he said. "The cola can was one of the things that forced them to plead guilty." The duo were arrested two days later, outside their homes.

Rosalind and Geoffrey Jason, the duo's first victims who lived in Cheyne Walk, Hendon, have moved back to Israel because they were so traumatised. The couple, who lived in Cheyne Walk, Hendon, were held up with an eight-inch machete in Shirehall Park, and ordered to hand over their jewellery.

In another incident, Malka Zolty and Gavriel Cohen, of Portsdown Avenue, Golders Green, were taken at gunpoint to a cashpoint in Hendon Central and forced to hand over money before having their car and phone stolen.

Detective Constable John Corkett, of Barnet police, said: "I suppose they were just trying to live the life of a gangster and were led by sheer greed."

Det Con Corkett said it was possible Sinclair, of Kenton Lane, Harrow Weald, and Bingham, of Northwick Road, Wembley, had left more victims too scared to come forward, because they found some items which have not been claimed.

Call the police on 020 8733 4593 if you have any information.