A nurse who joined a gang of Black Country carjackers targeting women and the elderly “for the thrill of it” has been jailed for five years.

Paediatric nurse Nahida Parveen along with two brothers from Dudley, who were each locked up for seven years, followed victims to rob them of cars. Two women and a 78-year-old man from the West Midlands were victims within a couple of weeks.

Two of them lost their cars but the third, Joanne Turner, “put up a good fight” when the carjackers tried to take her BMW Z4 and they fled empty-handed.

Sarfaraz Hussain, aged 23, and his 21-year-old brother Shahbaz, both of Himley Road, Dudley, admitted robbing Debbie Green of her BMW Mini outside her home in Swindon, near Wolverhampton.

They were found guilty of two more carjackings – the attempted robbery of Mrs Turner and robbing 78-year-old Peter Meredith, of Brierley Hill of his Ford Fiesta.

Parveen, aged 23, of Pepperbox Drive, Tipton, was acquitted by the jury at Stafford Crown Court yesterday of one charge of robbery, but convicted of another robbery, an attempted robbery, possessing an imitation firearm and perverting the course of justice.

Judge John Maxwell told the three: “There’s one thing that puzzles me. I don’t know what you intended to do with the cars.

“It’s possible all this was done in some perverted sense of excitement – this was done for the excitement of it.”

The judge said although the brothers tried to blame Parveen as the mastermind, it was, in fact, the other way round.

At their trial in October, the jury heard how the brothers first picked on Mr Meredith and robbed him of his Ford Fiesta outside his daughter’s house in Sedgley.

Parveen was cleared of that offence, but all three were then involved in an attempt to take Joanne Turner’s BMW Z4 when she pulled on to her drive in Beech Road, Dudley. She fought off two male attackers and they fled.

Two days later, Mrs Green was threatened with an imitation gun and forced to hand over her Mini.

The gun, dropped at the scene by one of the attackers, had been bought by Parveen from Poundland.

Despite her ordeal, Mrs Green rang police within seconds and got the numbers of the getaway cars.

Parveen’s Yaris was spotted in Dudley a short time later and kept under surveillance.

Mr Michael Garrett, prosecuting, said the gang picked on vulnerable victims.