Family gang jailed over stately homes burglary spree
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Five gang members have been jailed for a series of raids on stately homes, including Britain's biggest domestic burglary, British police say.
They stole antiques and art treasures worth millions of pounds from country houses across central and southern England.
Their crime spree included a raid on Ramsbury Manor, the Wiltshire mansion owned by property developer Harry Hyams.
They broke into the 17th Century house in February 2005, stealing paintings, clocks, furniture and other items which police valued at $47.1 million.
Some of the haul was later found buried in a bunker in a field in Warwickshire.
A judge described it as the country's biggest ever private house burglary.
The five - all members of the same traveller family - were found guilty of conspiracy to burgle at Reading Crown Court.
Ricky Johnson, 54, was jailed for eight years, Richard Chad Johnson, 33, jailed for 11 years, Albie Johnson, 25, was jailed for nine years, Michael Nicholls, 29, was jailed for 10 years and Danny O'Loughlin, 32, was given 11 years.
The gang staked out houses and carefully planned their getaway routes before each burglary.
Media reports said they used a four-wheel-drive car with a metal stake attached to the roof to ram bolted gates and doors.
Police said the men sometimes used "gratuitous" violence and made threats against vulnerable people in their own homes.
"It is these people who have my utmost sympathy," said Detective Superintendent Mark Warwick, who led the inquiry.
"I hope in some way the achievements of the investigation team will go a little way to ease their suffering."
Police from five forces took part in an unprecedented joint investigation, codenamed Operation Haul.
Thief boasted
Ricky Johnson once boasted in a television documentary that he had "done an awful lot of robbing" over the years.
"I really feel I have got the right to rob the lords out there," he said on the BBC3 program "Country Strife".
"I feel I have got the right to rob the sirs and lords and ladies."
As the inquiry grew, it split into two strands - one investigating the burglaries, the other probing the theft of cash machines and valuable metal used in the building trade.
Several members of the same gang were also found guilty of targeting commercial premises in a series of thefts of steel, titanium and alloys.
Nine other men and a woman have been jailed in connection with the investigation into 100 crimes that took place between May 2003 and April 2006.
- Reuters
