Raiders who targeted jewellers locked up

Two armed robbers who launched a terrifying £12,000 raid on a Black Country jewellers were today starting custodial sentences totalling 14 years.

Martin Young and Carlus Walker pointed an imitation double barrelled shotgun at two middle aged members of staff after bursting into the John Hollins store in Wolverhampton Street, Dudley, a judge heard.

Mrs Lynne Willetts, 59, and 53-year-old Mrs Elaine De-Akinbothun feared they could be shot because they could not have known the firearm was fake, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told yesterday.

Prosecutor David Lees explained: "They were both extremely scared and presumed the defendants would use the gun." In fact the weapon was two metal tubes taped together and covered by a plastic bag, the court heard. Young, aged 41, was on licence at the time from a seven-year jail sentence imposed for a £2,500 armed robbery committed on another jewellers less than 100 yards down the same road in June 2006.

Walker, 19, had been one of two thugs armed with an axe and baseball bat who stole up to £12,000 worth of cash and jewellery from John Brookes jewellers in Queensway, Halesowen on March 23, days before the raid on the John Hollins store.

Both offences occured around lunchtime and 68-year-old Mr Brookes was threatened with an axe and bound with his hands beh-ind his back to a chair, continued Mr Lees.

His assistant in the shop, Mrs Sheila Lester, 65, was warned by the robber wielding the baseball bat that she could get her skull "smashed in", the court was told.

An attempt was also made to bind her legs before the raiders fled with their haul leaving the axe on top of the ransacked safe. The weapon had the fingerprints of Walker on it.

Mr Brookes later told police: "The whole incident was over in 20 minutes but it felt like for ever. I feel like retiring bec-ause I never want to go through this again.

Mrs Lester confirmed in a victim impact statement: "I feared for my life."

The two defendants were arrested on April 13, after being identified on CCTV from the Hollins raid. Young, from Frevil Road, Coventry, and Walker, of nearby Milverton Road, both admitted that robbery and possession of an imitation firearm while Walker also pleaded guilty to the John Bookes robbery.

Young, described as a "career criminal" with a string of previous convictions was jailed for eight years while Walker was ordered to be detained in a Young Offenders Institution for six years.

Judge Amjad Nawaz told them: "Those working in these shops were vulnerable because they operated an open door policy meaning that anybody could walk in."