A terrified family were held under armed siege at their Wolverhampton home by two robbers who forced them to hand over £50,000 of jewellery, a jury heard.

Posing as delivery men, David Whaley and Liam Jordan burst into the three-bedroomed terraced house in All Saints and threatened a mother and her two daughters at gunpoint, it is alleged.

Police arrived on the scene when a son who had been sleeping upstairs dialled 999 and the raiders attempted to escape over gardens at the back of the property.

Jordan, aged 18, got away but 45-year-old Whaley, wearing a blonde wig and a high-visibility jacket, was caught by officers, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.

Nisha Nair described how she looked through the front room window of her home in Vicarage Road on February 23  this year and saw two men, one wearing an orange fluorescent jacket and holding a large cardboard box, whom the prosecution say was Whaley. Thinking it was a parcel for one of the family, she said she opened the door but was pushed back.

Whaley was alleged to have rushed inside with Jordan,who locked the door and pulled out a handgun.

Miss Nair told how she ran into a back living room and alerted her mother and sister.

But the jury heard how the robbers followed, both now wielding guns, demanding they hand over cash, gold and jewellery.

Miss Nair told how she grabbed her mobile phone and ran upstairs, trying to phone the police, but was pursued by Jordan.

She said she handed over a box full of gold jewellery before being taken downstairs. The court heard her second bid to alert police was successful after she managed to secretly pass the house phone to her brother, who emerged from his room as the women were herded into a bedroom.

She told him to return to his room and ring the police.

The robbers tried to shackle the women with cable ties but “made a hash of it” and ran for it when they heard police sirens outside, said Mr Gerard Quirke, prosecuting.

Cardiff-born Whaley, of no fixed address, denies aggravated burglary, possessing a firearm when prohibited and two charges of making use of a firearm with intent.

The jury was told that Jordan pleaded guilty to the offences at Wolverhampton Crown Court last month.

The case continues.