Burglars who stole £1m worth of property from expensive homes in affluent areas have been jailed.
Sayed Juied, 32, of Walterton Road, Westminster; Mohammed Alam, 26, of Clifton Gardens, Uxbridge; and Sadek Miah, 31, of Ashmore Road, Westminster; were sentenced to a total of 17 years and six months imprisonment at Kingston Crown Court on Wednesday (April 1).
The gang targeted large detached homes in wealthy neighbourhoods, disabling alarms and CCTV cameras to steal safes and other property.
Between October 2013 and August 2014, they committed 20 attempted and successful burglaries in Merton, Wandsworth, Barnet, Hillingdon, Kingston and Hertfordshire.
Police became aware of their operation on July 19 last year, when two expensive cars were stolen from a house in Somerset Road, Wimbledon, next door to the All England Tennis Club, home of the Wimbledon Championships.
CCTV footage from the Lawn Tennis Association showed the offenders and a vehicle they used, which had been hired by Alam to commit the offence.
As a result, officers launched Operation Bardet to investigate a number of cross-border burglaries, dating back to October 2013.
On August 1, at around 2.30am, police saw Alam, Juied and Miah approach a large detached property in Nicholas Way, Northwood.
Juied and Miah used a crowbar to force open a downstairs window and entered the property while Alam waited as a lookout. The house alarm was set off, but the pair smashed the alarm box, disabling it before searching the building.
Officers swooped and arrested them both.
Both men were taken to a south London police station for questioning and were subsequently charged. Miah fled the scene, but was later caught and arrested in east London.
Juied was jailed for six years and six months after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary.
Alam was sentenced to five years after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary.
Miah got six years after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary.
Detective Sergeant Dan Mitchell, from the Merton Borough Burglary Team, said: "I hope these convictions serve as a warning to anyone looking to commit crime in this borough.
"The Metropolitan Police Service takes the offence of burglary very seriously and will do everything within their power to target burglary offenders and bring them to justice."
