TWO young women shot a pub manager with a stun gun and stole £1,000 for a shopping trip to the Trafford Centre, a court was told.

Nicola Eyre, 20, of Carr Hall Gardens, Barrowford, and Jade Walker, 18, formerly of James Street, Barnoldswick, who had never been in trouble before, wore balaclavas for the bungling raid.

But they were caught out after Ian Jones, the manager who they attacked, recognised former employee Eyre's voice, Preston Crown Court heard. Eyre and Walker pleaded guilty to robbery and possession of a prohibited weapon and were jailed for two years.

The court was told that the women were at a loss to explain their actions and that Eyre, who had been set for a career in the Prison Service, was distressed about the shame brought on her "respectable" family.

Mr Justice Openshaw, sentencing, said that the robbery at the Old Mother Redcap, Blackburn Road, on the Blackburn and Oswaldtwistle border, had left the victim terrified.

The judge added: "Such offences will only be discouraged by passing severe sentences.

"It is obvious these particular offences lacked professionalism.

"Detection was, on any objective view, more or less inevitable."

Francis McEntee, prosecuting, said Eyre had worked for the Redcap for six months but had been asked to leave because of "attitude difficulties", although Mr Jones thought they had parted on good terms.

On a Sunday night in June, Mr Jones was closing up for the evening when he heard a bang on the pub door.

He went out to investigate, could see no-one, but two figures came from the side as he went to go back in.

Eyre and Walker, both wearing "crudely-made full-face balaclavas with holes cut for eyes, seemed to be carrying kitchen knives as well as the stun gun.

Mr McEntee told the court: "Mr Jones took a few steps.

"He felt a sharp sting in the back of his neck and a buzzing in his ear, causing him to fall forward on to his knees. He pulled himself up".

Eyre was holding a Taser stun gun and Mr Jones was told to get behind the bar.

Still feeling nauseous and sick, he fell down again, the court heard.

When Eyre told him to open the till he recognised her voice.

The pair took just over a thousand pounds.

Eyre later told police she had been in considerable debt prior to the robbery.

But most of the money appeared to have been spent at the Trafford Centre, though two or three hundred pounds was recovered, the court heard.

Jeffrey Samuels, for Eyre, said it was little short of astonishing that someone like her should find herself facing sentence for such an offence.

She came from an utterly respectable family, he said.

Mr Samuels added: "They are devastated and dumbfounded in equal measure.

"She is distressed by the worry and shame the proceedings have brought upon them.

"If ever an offence can be said to be out of character, then this is such a case.

"Ironically, but for the commission of this offence, this young woman would now be embarking upon a career in the Prison Service."

Peter Horgan, for Walker, said: "She is at a loss to explain why she committed the offences. She has shown genuine remorse and guilt."