Reuben Craven and Ian Jones are said to have staged early-morning robberies at stores in Kenilworth, Tamworth and Nuneaton wearing the same crash helmets for the raids.

They made their get-aways on a Yamaha 600 Thundercat motorbike.

Craven, 21 and Jones, 19, both of Coventry, pleaded not guilty to a charge of conspiracy to rob.

Prosecutor Adrian Keeling said they were part of a small gang who, on four occasions, targeted shops to rob them.

The first robbery was at Tesco Express, Tamworth in July 2006.

Before 6am, three robbers, including Jones and Craven, forced open the door with a screwdriver and terrorised the staff, grabbing one woman round her throat and threatening another with a bottle.

Manager Jaswant Gill was ordered to open the safe and told they would kill him if he did not. When he was unable to open it due to a time delay, the robbers fled.

CCTV cameras captured an image of the bigger bike and of the two robbers who went inside, the taller of whom said to be Jones, was wearing a crash helmet with a distinctive black and white pattern.

The smaller, darker-skinned robber, said to be Craven, had a blue helmet and black trainers with a distinctive white stripe, and they were also carrying a rucksack, which was seen at all three raids.

On July 28, before 6am, two robbers wearing the same crash helmets barged their way into the Tesco Express in Nuneaton armed with a baseball bat and a screwdriver.

They threatened to stab manager Mohammed Raza if he did not open the safe and when he did they took £19,100.

On August 15 the robbers forced their way into the Tesco Express in Kenilworth.

They threatened to stab manager Lynsey Smith if the safe was not opened and escaped with £16,000.

This time the police were on the scene before they had disappeared and caught up with them.

The police chased the robbers to Coventry. Officers lost sight of the bike and then found it crashed and abandoned.

Linda Sherratt lived at a house in nearby Radford Road with Mark Williams, who was on a night shift. She was woken by the police activity and her dog, which was disturbed by something at the back of the house.

When Mr Williams got home a few minutes later, the dog was let out and went to the outside lavatory. The couple went to investigate and found two men hiding inside.

The men, later identified as Jones and Craven, admitted they were hiding from the police, but made off and managed to slip through the police cordon.

A top abandoned in the lavatory had Craven's DNA on it and a jacket had a damage mark on the chest which had been shown by the camera in the Kenilworth store.

The trial continues.