A GANG of five robbers from Coventry have been handed prison sentences totalling 45 years for a crime wave across the Midlands.

The five plotters ram-raided a jewellers in Banbury in March, smashing the shop front with axes.

Speaking as she sentenced the gang members at Birmingham Crown Court yesterday, Judge Sybil Thomas said shoppers and passers-by had been left "terrified" by the attack.

She said: "This was a professionally planned conspiracy to commit a commercial robbery. There was a large number of ordinary people and children going around their ordinary business.

"Statements show the people there were very frightened and the jeweller said the fear was immense.

''He asked everyone to leave through the back door including a woman with a child in a pushchair.'' Leroy Green, 29 of Webster Street, Foleshill; Christian Hibbert, 20, of Cawthorne Close, Hillfields, Richard John, 25 of Peel Street, Foleshill and Clinton Hunte, 29, of Gibert Close, Hillfields, all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to rob.

Leroy Green's sister Lorna, 24, of Camelia Road, Alderman's Green, Coventry, was convicted of the offence after a trial in November.

Timothy Pole, prosecuting, said that on March 6 the gang used two stolen cars, an Audi A3 and Honda Civic with false place to carry out the robbery on Michael Jones jewellers in Banbury High Street, a pedestrianised area.

One of the cars had previously been stolen from an old lady outside her house in Gainsford Rise, Walsgrave, Coventry, as she returned home.

Mr Pole said the Honda Civic was repeatedly reversed into the shop window which caused it to crack.

He said: "Then two men, both wearing balaclavas and both wielding axes, attacked the front of the shop smashing repeatedly against the window, aiming to break through it to get the valuable items behind.

"A third man came from the car also wielding a weapon described as a long black truncheon and the people in the shop were terrified.'' He said the gang escaped in a waiting Audi with a haul of designer Cartier watches worth £12,925.

The defendants sped down the A423 Southam Road pursued by police officers to a layby near a cemetery car park.

Police found Hibbert and Lorna Green in her Renault with two motorbikes and four helmets as getaway vehicles for the others. The pair were arrested at the scene.

The Audi was later found abandoned at the Waterside Medical Centre, in Leamington, with three discarded balaclavas.

DNA found in the helmets and balaclavas linked the defendants to the scene.

Dad of two Leroy Green also pleaded guilty to a robbery at Classic Watches in Smith Street, Warwick on February 1.

Green, along with accomplices dressed in dark clothes and wielding axes and a sledgehammer smashed the door and display cabinets. They escaped with jewellery from the shop after threatening the manager.

Hibbert also pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm with attempt to cause violence and possession of ammunition without a certificate.

Only 20 days after being released on bail for the Banbury robbery he shot a man in Coventry following a confrontation. The man received only minor injuries.

Leroy Green was given 12 years, Hibbert 12 years, Hunte eight years, Lorna Green seven years and John six years.

Judge Thomas imprisoned Hunte, Hibbert and Leroy Green - who have a string of previous convictions - for "public protection" saying they were dangerous men.

They have to serve a minimum of half their sentence before they can be considered for release by a parole board.