A 31-YEAR-OLD man has been jailed for more than seven years for his part in a £330,000 robbery at an Oxfordshire jewellers.

Michael Williams was part of a gang who carried out a “carefully planned and professional” raid to take valuable watches from Michael Jones Jewellers in Banbury High Street on April 22 last year.

Four masked men forced their way into the store, smashing display cases with sledgehammers before driving off with items worth £331,695.

Williams, of Shelley Road, London, who has seven previous convictions for robberies, pleaded guilty to robbery.

He initially told police he had lent a Range Rover involved in the heist to Devon McPherson, the man who was stabbed to death in East Oxford in May.

John Riley, prosecuting, said the raid was “very quick, very efficient and clearly directed at the display cabinets with the watches in”.

Jailing Williams for seven years three monthson Friday, Judge Patrick Eccles said the raid “relied on speed, intimidation and force to succeed” and had left staff extremely frightened.