The two men who carried out an armed robbery at a Brighton jewellers have been sent to prison.
Charles Sadler was sentenced to 11 years and Aaron Phillips jailed for 8 years at Kingston Crown Court in London today.
They were part of a gang of 50 dangerous criminals who carried out a series of armed smash and grabs and hold ups across London and the South of England.
The pair used sledgehammers to smash the window of Gold Arts in Brighton Place, in The Lanes, on Monday 26 January 2009.
They made off with a haul worth thousands of pounds as brave members of the public gave chase and tried to take photographs of them using mobile phones.
They were also part of the team of five crooks who swiped 30 Rolex watches worth £100,000 from Watches of Switzerland in Ship Street, Brighton, on Friday 21 November 2008.
The other three members of the team were sentenced yesterday.
The gang went armed with sledgehammers, axes and CS spray as they smashed their way into jewellery shops over 16 months and stole a haul worth more than £3.5 million in total.
They also targeted motorcycle dealerships, tieing up staff then loading several motorbikes into stolen vans.
The gang used the stolen motorbikes as getaway vehicles after robbing the jewellers.
The five criminals masterminding the raids were
- James Stewart, 28, of Fair Meadows, Maidstone
- Billy Johnson, 28, of Sturdy Road, Southwark, London
- His brother Danny Johnson, 29, of the same address
- Anthony Bado, 28, of St Clement’s Road, Boscombe, Bournemouth
- John Chambers, 35, of Swiftsden Way, Bromley, London
Chambers admitted conspiracy to burgle and the others were jailed for conspiring to rob.
The Watches of Switzerland robbery was carried out by Stewart along with Phillips, 22, of Westhorne Avenue, Eltham, London, Sadler, 22, of Glenalvon Way, Woolwich, London, Kevin David Cook, 28, of Wiston Road, Bethnal Green, London, and Lee Fairbank, 31, of no fixed address.
Stewart and Billy Johnson were both jailed for 14 years and Danny Johnson for 11 years and 4 months.
Bado was jailed for 12 years and Chambers for 9 years and 4 months.
Sussex Police provided crucial intelligence to the Metropolitan Police Flying Squad which ran the operation to snare the gang.
It led to 51 gang members being sentenced in a series of cases over the past three years.
