VIOLENT armed robbers who targeted businesses including a Kinver jewellery store have been jailed for a total of 52 years.

Wolverhampton Crown Court was told the seven strong gang was armed with weapons including a handgun, stun gun, machete and home-made battering ram.

Three of the men were caught on CCTV bursting into CNW jewellers, in the village, where they brushed past two terrified customers forcing one onto the floor before vaulting the counter and smashing open display cabinets.

The robbers grabbed jewellery worth £3,500 while one of the gang armed with a hammer stood guard at the door, the raid took just two minutes but had a lasting effect on shop owner Clive Willetts.

Mr Willetts, who has developed heart problems since the incident, said: "I am constantly reliving the incident in my head and my health has been affected, I did not have these palpitations before."

The gang, which included a former professional footballer with Coventry City, targeted three jewellery shops, a bookmakers shop and a string of luxury homes as they stole top of the range cars and property worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

They were finally smashed by a joint operation launched by Staffordshire Police and West Midlands Police codenamed Yeoman that culminated in raids by armed police at addresses in the Walsall and Birmingham.

Judge Michael Challinor said: "A gun was pointed and a taser used. The public must know that this kind of professional offending will always attract substantial sentences."

The gang members all admitted conspiracy to rob, their leader, Waheed Zaman, aged 31, of Calshot Road, Great Barr - currently serving a six year term for raiding a Worcester supermarket - got ten years.

Imran Zaman, 23, of The Cube, Birmingham, and 21-year-old Ryan Jones, the ex-footballer, of Watermere, Walsall were both jailed for nine years.

Levi Melbourne, 24, of Lingmoor Grove, Aldridge - currently serving four-and-a-half years for killing a friend in a car crash - was given a six-and-a-half year sentence.

Lewis Richards, 21, of Brockwell Road, Kingstanding, also got six-and-a-half years while Larry Barnett, 25, of Goosemoor Lane, Erdington - already serving 15 years for armed raids with a different gang - also got six-and-a-half years.

Qaiser Rashid, 27, of Drayton Street, Walsall, was jailed for five years.

Detective Inspector Bob Bradford, from West Midlands Police, said: "The public and, in particular, businesses will be a lot safer with these men behind bars."