A jewellery robber who was part of a gang that made off with a £365,000 haul from a Black Country shop was today beginning an eight-year jail sentence.

The raiders used a battering ram to smash their way into SK Jewellers in High Street, West Bromwich before breaking cabinets containing gold necklaces with a sledgehammer and crowbar.

Today the Express & Star can reveal never-before seen CCTV footage of the terrifying heist that lasted 90 seconds.

Max Williams

Max Williams, one of the gang of three, was caught using DNA evidence. Police say he can be seen cutting himself on a glass cabinet he had smashed with a hammer.

The 22-year-old, of Laxey Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, admitted robbery at an earlier hearing and was sentenced at Wolverhampton Crown Court yesterday.

Mr Mark Phillips, prosecuting, told the court that at 5.30pm on May 4 staff at the family-run jewellers were getting ready to shut up shop.

He said: “There was a lone customer in the shop and three figures in balaclavas approached the security door.” The court heard one of the men, who the defence maintain is

Williams, smashed their way through two doors with a battering ram, before checking the first door had not locked behind them. But police say Williams is really the man who can be seen flinching in pain as he cuts himself on broken glass.

Mr Phillips said they shouted “get out, get out” at the six staff and one female customer who was in the store, before two of the men used hammers to break into the cabinets.

The third gang member vaulted a counter before smashing wall cabinets filled with necklaces and heavy gold jewellery. The loot was thrown into red and white laundry bags.

Williams’s DNA was left at the scene and he was arrested on May 12 at Smethwick police station where he was answering bail on another matter.

Judge Michael Challinor said: “This was a planned and sophisticated offence. The owners of the jewellery shop were terrified seeing you come in as you did.” He added none of the stolen jewellery has been recovered.

Mr Harbinder Lally, defending, said Williams, who has no previous convictions for violence, was described as “decent, kind, helpful and intelligent”. However, he said he had got into debt and was pressured into committing the offence after getting “involved in the wrong crowd”.

A second charge of possession of a firearm was dropped because the CCTV evidence did not back up witnesses claims that they had seen a gun.