A THUG from Oldbury who acted as lookout for his two partners-in-crime who viciously pistol whipped a vulnerable shopkeeper before escaping with £2,700 has been jailed for eight years.

Zubair Khan, aged 27, was keeping watch as Isaac Frazer and Ashley Haughton, who was armed with a machete, left 33-year-old victim Zemnako Azad Salhi with “unpleasant” injuries.

Mr Salhi had been visiting relatives who lived over his store in the Whitmore Reans area of Wolverhampton when he was set on in an alleyway and the armed gang also got away with a set of car keys.

But all three men were chased by witnesses to the brutal incident and within a matter of minutes they had been arrested by police officers who rushed to the scene.

Judge John Warner said it clearly a planned robbery: “I am satisfied that you thought you would get a large sum of money.”

Khan of Seymour Road, Oldbury, Frazer, 33, of Newbridge Street and 27-year-old Haughton of Great Hampton Street, both Wolverhampton had denied robbing Mr Azad Salih.

They further pleaded not guilty to possessing an imitation firearm and possessing an offensive weapon, the machete, but all three were convicted on all charges by a jury at the end of their trial.

The judge jailed Haughton for 10 years while Frazer, who was on licence at the time from a jail term imposed for possessing an imitation firearm, was put behind bars for 12 years.

Wolverhampton Crown Court was told it was Frazer who hit the victim with the pistol while Haughton menacingly waved the machete.

Mr Simon Hanns defending said the crime had come as a great shock to Khan's family because he was a man of previous good character.

The judge told Khan, “I do not believe you were acting under pressure. You were involved in a serious offence albeit with a lower profile than the two others.”

He said it was clear Khan could not be described as a “sophisticated” criminal.