A gang who raided jewellery stores armed with weapons including a stun gun and a meat cleaver have been jailed for a total of nearly 24 years.
The five men, aged as young as 18, carried out a string of violent robberies at shops in Ealing , Hounslow and Southall during a three-week reign of terror.
On the morning of December 18 last year, police said Andrei Milea and Lucian Marian Ciuta entered a jewellers in Hounslow, where they threatened the owner with a meat cleaver and stole jewellery worth £9,000.
Knife held to owner's throat
Four days later Milea and an unknown man targeted a store in Southall, where they held a knife to the owner's throat before fleeing when a security device was triggered.
On January 8 this year, at around 11am, Milea, Catalin Nemoleac and Alexandru-Mihai Costof threatened the owner of a jewellery shop in South Ealing Road, Northfields, from where they stole a watch and £200 cash.
Milea, Ciuta and Ionut Toader had also broken into a jewellers in Manor Park on December 18 last year but failed to gain access through an interior door and left empty handed.
Sentenced for up to seven years each
The gang members were sentenced on Friday (July 22) at Isleworth Crown Court.
- Milea, 18, of no fixed abode, who had been armed with a stun gun, admitted conspiracy to rob, and was jailed for five years and seven months.
- Nemoleac, 29, and Costof, 30, both of no fixed address, admitted robbery, and were each jailed for seven years and two months.
- Ciuta, 22, of no fixed address, admitted robbery and burglary, and was jailed for three years and four months.
- Toader, 19, of no fixed abode, admitted burglary, and was jailed for eight months.
All those jailed are Romanian nationals, and Ciuta had been arrested at Luton Airport on January 22 as he was about to board a flight to Bucharest.
They were detained after being identified by detectives from the Met's Flying Squad, who had spent hours poring over CCTV footage.
'I hope sentence brings measure of closure to victims'
DC Tim Fines, of the Flying Squad, said: "This case clearly demonstrates the exceptional investigative techniques now being used by police to detect crime.
"Despite the suspects all being of no fixed address and non UK nationals we were able to identify them, trace them and ultimately present overwhelming evidence against them.
"I hope that today's sentence brings a measure of comfort and closure to the victims of this gang. I am sure these men would have gone on to commit further crimes has they not been apprehended."
A man who tried to stab a police officer near Acton Town Tube station , where he had been targeting commuters, was this week jailed for 10 years.
Police seized weapons and arrested 11 people following a disturbance in Ladbroke Grove during the early hours of Friday (July 22).
