text: A gang of armed robbers used pink umbrellas to hide themselves as they stole £145,000 from 13 shops in a two-month crime spree. The brolly-clad thieves targeted supermarkets, convenience stores and electrical shops, swiping £2,000 worth of cigarettes and cars valued at £30,000 in the process. CCTV footage from one of the raids in Tipton, West Midlands, shows the gang using umbrellas to conceal their entrance as they burst into a supermarket, where they stole cash from the offices. Scroll down for video . Umbrella thieves: A gang of armed robbers used pink brollies to confuse staff as they raided 13 shops in a two-month crime spree in the West Midlands . The gang  also threatened shop workers with hammers, knives and screwdrivers, before punching one employee in the face. In a separate raid, the men stole the store manager's Mercedes E200 which they used as their getaway car. The group have now been jailed for more than 27 years after pleading guilty to conspiracy to rob. Police caught the thieves following a raid on an Asda supermarket in Coseley, West Midlands, where they were armed with hammers and what was reported to be a gun in a plastic bag. Detectives then used forensic evidence found on the weapon to link the various burglaries, before executing search warrants on the homes of the four suspects. During the searches, police found fluorescent jackets, identical to those used in the raids, along with banks statements showing large transfers of cash. Armed: The gang also threatened shop workers with hammers, knives, golf clubs and screwdrivers . They also discovered numerous cash bags from a shop known as Farmfords, one of those targeted by the group, as well as £2,500 in cash. Mobile phones found at the addresses also showed several calls made between the group, while number plate analysis linked the defendants to the areas where the crimes had been committed. Liam Bell, 19, from Rowley Regis, West Midlands, and 22-year-old Trea Richardson, from Hansworth, were arrested in June last year, at the time of the warrants being executed. Marcus Morgan, 21, from Tividale, West Midlands, went on the run for five months before being detained in November. Guilty: Ashleigh Evans, 26 (left) from West Bromwich and Marcus Morgan, 21 (right) from Tividale, West Midlands, were jailed for ten years and seven years respectively for their parts in the 13 robberies . Jailed: Liam Bell, 19 (left), from Rowley Regis was jailed for six years and six months while Trea Richardson, 22 (right) from Hansowrth, was sentened to a four-year jail term . Ashleigh Evans, 26, from West Bromwich, was arrested on a flight back from Amsterdam. Officers even found the umbrella captured on CCTV in his luggage. On Friday, Evans was sentenced to 10 years in prison, while Bell was jailed for six years and six months. Richardson received a four-year jail term while Morgan was sentenced to seven years. Sentencing Morgan, Recorder William Mousley QC said to Morgan: 'No doubt you would have seen the fear in the eyes of the people you were robbing yet you carried on thereafter. 'It was not a one-off, it was a course of conduct you decided to engage in quite freely for a few weeks. 'This was professional, commercial robbery for significant financial gain where people were disguised and premises targeted that were vulnerable where people worked hard for not much money. 'They were not the type of premises where workers would expect people like you to come in and rob the store. The only mitigation I can find other than your guilty plea is your youth.' Speaking after the hearing, Detective Sergeant Rich Whitehouse, from West Midlands Police, said: 'The money and value of goods stolen, while significant, is nothing compared to the impact these offences have had on the staff members of the targeted premises. 'These offences were carefully planned and the group went to great lengths to conceal their involvement, often using umbrellas as cover when walking from the street to the shops, so as not to draw attention to their face coverings. 'However, the more offences they committed the more arrogant they became. There was also a clear escalation in the type of weapons used in the robberies and I am in no doubt they would have gone on to seriously hurt someone had they not been stopped.'
target: Thieves raided supermarkets and electrical shops during 55-day spree .
  Four-man gang used pink umbrellas for disguise and fled in getaway cars .
  They also threatened shop workers with hammers, knives and screwdrivers .
  Liam Bell, 19, Marcus Morgan, 21, Ashleigh Evans, 26 and 22-year-old Trea Richardson, all from West Midlands, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to rob .