Members of a “sophisticated” van stealing operation have been jailed for a combined total of 10 years after the four men were caught on the camera of one of the vehicles they stole.

Between February and August 2016, the four-man operation took ten vans, one Range Rover and a recovery truck to a barn on London Road in Farningham, next to a golf course.

There the men, which included a man from Swanley and another from Bexleyheath, would then dismantle the vehicles into parts which would then be sold on.

Their operation was uncovered though after they neglected to remove the internal CCTV recording from a Ford Transit truck that had been taken from Welling.

On August 13 police received an anonymous 999 call that stated they heard men talking about how to remove trackers from vehicles.

The call led police to the barn in Farningham where the stolen Welling truck was in the process of being stripped.

There the police were able to recover the CCTV footage from the truck where it showed the vehicle being escorted from Welling to the barn where it was stripped of its livery.

Alfie Powell, 37 and of Button Street in Swanley, pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal a motor vehicle. He was sentenced to three years and eight months.

Jay Osborne, 35 and of Parkside Avenue in Bexleyheath, pleaded guilty to theft and was sentenced to 18 months.

George Powell, 40 and of London Road in Farningham, pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal a motor vehicle. He was sentenced to 14 months.

Roger Powell, 34 and of Meadow Lane in Wickford, Essex, pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal a motor vehicle. He was sentenced to three years and eight months.

Detective Sergeant Rik Spicer, the senior investigating officer for this case, said: “The operation these offenders ran was well choreographed and sophisticated.

“They all had a role to play, from transporting the stolen cars back to their barn to stripping them of parts. These parts would then be sold on or be used in legitimate vehicles.

“The video was an important piece of evidence used to secure this conviction. The offenders were clearly aware the cameras were filming them but assumed the footage would never see the light of day. Thankfully we were able to recover this data.

“This type of offending is far from victimless. The vehicles taken were relied upon by their victims for work and their loss would have placed a significant financial and emotional burden on them.”