A KINGSWINFORD mother-of-three who took part in a terrifying armed robbery to fuel her £700 a week heroin and crack cocaine habit has been locked up for over four years.

Recorder David Mason QC at Wolverhampton Crown Court said it was clear 40-year-old Emma Gwilliams had a "desperate need" for class A drugs when the Spar shop in Lapwood Avenue was attacked by the gang.

One of her two accomplices produced a pistol and it was pointed at the shop owner who had a vodka bottle smashed over his head.

Gwilliams had earlier robbed one of her neighbours in Field Sidings Way, Kingswinford, of his car and that was used a short time later in the armed robbery.

The neighbour used his car to take his mother to and from hospital. Gwilliams, who accepted his offer to give her a lift, then snatched the keys after asking for his help when she left the vehicle.

She then sped away from the scene with another man believed to have been one of the other robbers who struck at the store - Dean Easthope, prosecuting, said.

He told the court the gang had clearly targeted the shop and they got away with cash, cigarettes and alcohol after leaving the owner with a nasty lump on his head.

It was a planned robbery on a vulnerable man who suffered some psychological damage as a result of the crime, said the Recorder as he jailed Gwilliams for 52 months.

Stephen Hamblett, defending, said Gwilliams, who had 87 previous convictions on her criminal record, had climbed up the ladder with the offending which was down to her serious drug addiction.

He told the court she had gone in a downhill spiral after the death of her partner and she accepted she deserved to go to prison having already apologised for her actions.

"It was desperate behaviour and there was nothing sophisticated about what she did," concluded Mr Hamblett.

The Recorder was told Gwilliams was arrested after the registration number of the stolen car was recorded at the scene with the robbery being captured on CCTV.

The other two men involved in the offence - it was the one man who was armed with the pistol - were still being hunted by police.

It was extremely serious offending, stressed the Recorder, because a firearm had been produced in the shop and a bottle had been used to strike the owner.

Gwilliams, he went on, had been wise enough to realise only a substantial period of custody had to be imposed - having pleaded guilty to two charges of robbery.