They charged through the streets of Wolverhampton, smashing shop windows and raiding businesses. But today, four of those who took part in the widespread disorder that took hold of the Black Country were behind bars.

They were locked up for a combined total of nine years and eight months by Wolverhampton’s most senior judge, John Warner.

During yesterday’s hearing at the city’s crown court, prosecuting barrister Mr Hugh O’Brien-Quinn read statements from businesses and residents who had detailed the devastating impact of the riots.

Among those first-hand accounts was that of an unnamed Queen Street trader. “I saw girls with hammers in their handbags take them out as cool as you like,” read the statement.

“They used them to smash windows. They came down Queen Street like something out of Zulu.”

The statement helped to provide a backdrop to the disgusting scenes that spilled out across Wolverhampton, West Bromwich and Birmingham earlier this month. The court was also given details of the crimes committed by four yobs at the height of the disorder.

It heard how father-of-two Luke Blakemore masked himself and joined a gang who tried to break into the Currys store on St John’s Retail Park on August 9.

However, the raid was foiled by police officers who gave chase and caught him.

Dwaine Spence, 24, lead a gang of between 30 and 40 on a rampage through Whitmore Reans. Spence hurled a 3ft wooden plank towards a police vehicle next to the Asda store in the city before he was chased and caught.

Also locked up yesterday was 20-year-old James Aldridge, who admitted looting a sub-woofer from Sunitek in Broad Street, and to entering Digitech Masters in Queen Street with intent to steal. He cut his leg while leaving Digitech Masters and was later traced.

Meanwhile, Parupkar Kainth, 20, admitted acting as a “getaway driver” by driving three men from West Bromwich to the raids in Wolverhampton. The court heard he parked his car in an alleyway near Market Square and waited while the trio targeted stores.