A robber crippled for life as dogs chased him away from the house he was raiding was given a shorter prison sentence on Friday because of his injuries.

William Solhotra, 19, burst into his victim's home brandishing a gun but was chased off by the man's dogs.

He was found guilty of assault with intent to rob and having an imitation firearm with intent to commit a robbery after bursting into Stephen Farrant's family home in Denning Avenue, Waddon, on March 25 last year.

He and two other men were chased off by two guard dogs. While fleeing, both Solhotra's legs were broken and his arm fractured after he was hit by a passing car.

Speaking at Croydon Crown Court, Judge Nicholas Ainley said Solhotra, of London Road, West Croydon, could no longer be regarded as a potential danger to the public and gave him three years behind jail.

He said: "You had a serious injury which restricts your every day activities very significantly."

The court heard Mr Farrant was at home with his wife Julie and children when he answered the door to three men who pushed their way inside.

He yelled at his two mastiff Neopolitan dogs to get the robbers, who fled as the dogs pounced. He told the hearing: "Two of the men ran from the house and a car hit one of them. The third man ran into the living room."

Mrs Farrant was in the room at the time but after her husband ran to the back of the house, the intruder fired his gun into the air and escaped towards Cowley Crescent.

Solhotra, who has six previous convictions for robberies and assault with intent to rob, denied any knowledge of the raid, but was found guilty on both counts.