A woman jeweller suffered the “most terrifying minutes” of her life when her shop in Bradford was raided by an armed gang.

Rebecca Sykes thought she would be killed and has suffered nightmares since the £100,000 robbery at the Gold Shop in Wakefield Road, Dudley Hill, a court heard yesterday.

Four members of the gang, who carried out a campaign of raids including the Bradford store, were locked up for a total of 42 years.

Leeds Crown Court was told that during the robbery, three masked men burst into the Gold Shop in May this year, forcing staff to seek refuge in a back room.

Armed with a machete, sledgehammer and baseball bat, the trio smashed display cabinets and loaded trays of jewels into bags.

But the robbers found they could not get out, after the security shutters were activated by the shop owner.

CCTV recorded them desperately smashing at the front door and eventually causing enough damage for them to wriggle out and escape in a Volkswagen Golf car parked nearby which was later found burned out. They got away with £100,000 in jewellery and cash.

In a victim personal statement read to the court, Miss Sykes said: “It was the most terrifying three and a half minutes of my life. I thought I was going to die. I thought they were going to kill us.”

She said she had not been able to stop thinking about the raid and had nightmares.

“When you work in the jewellery trade you know you may be the target of criminals and you try to prepare.”

She said the shop had security doors and bullet proof glass. “I thought I was safe, I thought nobody could get in and I was wrong. I still do not feel safe.

“What these people did that day was horrible, dreadful and I bet they never gave a second thought to what they have done to mine and others lives.”

Judge Geoffrey Marson QC said: “This amounted to a campaign of armed robbery. A substantial amount of cash and property was stolen and very little recovered.

“The targets were commercial premises and cash-in-transit vehicles. They were professionally carried out, carefully planned, prepared and executed.

“On occasions vehicles were stolen for the purpose of committing these robberies, other vehicles were secreted to enable your getaway and obviously some premises had been watched to ascertain the time of cash deliveries.”

Judge Marson said some vehicles were also destroyed to avoid risk of detection, they carried weapons and covered their faces.

He said the psychological impact on some of the victims had been profound. “Decent hard-working people have had their lives blighted by these offences, for some of them life will never be the same again.”

The court heard seven robberies were committed during the series of offences and £210,000 of cash or goods stolen.

Jason Vollans, 29, of Folly Lane, Beeston, Leeds, was jailed for 14 years after he admitted one charge of conspiracy to rob, including an offence where a sawn-off shotgun was brandished.

Benjamin Sidlow, 26, of East Grange Drive, Belle Isle, Leeds, admitted two charges of conspiracy to rob and was jailed for 12 years.

James Beeston, 23, of Temple View Road, East End Park, Leeds, admitted two charges of conspiracy and was jailed for ten years.

Joe Howey, 24, of Fenton Place, Leeds, admitted two charges of conspiracy and was jailed for six years.

A fifth man Liam Benson, 30, of Third Avenue, Rothwell, Leeds, was jailed for eight years at Bradford Crown Court in July after admitting robbery at The Gold Shop.

After the case Detective Chief Inspector Lisa Atkinson said: “These men played their part in a terrifying series of armed robberies where violence was used, and threatened, and staff and customers were put in genuine fear and left badly traumatised.

“These offences were carefully planned as part of an organised criminal enterprise based purely on greed for money to fund a lifestyle that none of them could legitimately afford.”