A prolific gang of doorstep conmen have been jailed after posing as policemen to prey on elderly people in Brighton and the surrounding area.
Miles Connors, 39, Patrick Connors, 18, and James Hanrahan, 39, all from Barra Hall Circus, in Hayes, Middlesex, have been jailed for a total of 21 years at Newcastle Crown Court.
Miles Connors and Patrick Connors are beginning sentences of nine and seven years in prison respectively, after admitting charges of conspiracy to burgle and burglary.
James Hanrahan was handed a five-year sentence after pleading guilty to burglary.
Their sentences, which were passed on Friday 25 February, come as the result of a nationwide investigation into a series of distraction burglaries across the country.
The investigation was led by North Yorkshire Police and involved 11 forces.
Sussex Police began an investigation in March last year after distraction burglaries in Brighton, Lancing and Mid Sussex.
Initial investigations by Brighton CID confirmed that there were other victims in neighbouring forces.
As a result, detailed analytical work was carried out by Sussex Police before the investigation became nationwide.
The gang were caught in late April last year the Selby Fork Hotel, in South Milford, Yorkshire.
The gang targeted elderly people – mainly in their seventies, eighties and nineties – by posing as police officers.
Sometimes they pretended to be from utility companies.
In many instances they successfully tricked their way into their victims’ homes to steal cash.
Two members of the gang knocked on the door of an 86-year-old woman in Davey Drive, Hollingdean, at around 11.20am on Monday 1 March last year but left empty-handed.
They targeted several homes on Wednesday 3 March.
At about 4.30pm two men dressed in black knocked on the door of a 67-year-old woman’s house in Lockwood Crescent, Woodingdean, claiming her tap was running and needed to be turned off.
The men produced some form of ID and claimed to be from the “water board”.
When the victim told the pair she would call the police and attempted to close the door, one of them put his foot in the doorway.
However, they did not gain entry into the house.
Two men in uniform claiming to be police officers knocked on the door of a 90-year-old woman in Vale Road, Portslade, at around 6pm.
One presented some form of identification and they asked if she had lost any money and went into the house, going upstairs.
They left empty-handed around 15 minutes later.
Shortly before or after that incident two men appeared inside the address of a woman in her seventies in Valley Road, Portslade.
They said that they were police officers and that a window had been broken.
However, they were unsuccessful in finding anything to steal.
It was later found that the door had been forced.
Two men called at the address of a couple in their eighties in the same road at around 7pm.
Again using the ruse that a window had been broken, they searched the house and stole more than £2,000 cash.
At around the same time, also in Valley Road, two men came to another address occupied by a lady in her eighties, claiming to be police officers.
They searched the house but took nothing.
Two men also called at two addresses in Orchard Avenue, Lancing, at around 7.30pm, claiming to be police officers.
They searched the premises and took £700 cash from one address occupied by a couple in their late sixties and £1,300 from the other addresses occupied by a lady in her eighties.
