Seven men who spent months planning a multi-million pound raid on a computer company have been jailed.
The London-based gang admitted conspiring to rob computer equipment from Comstor UK in Cirencester, Gloucs.
The men were arrested last December by armed officers before they could enter the firm's warehouse.
At Harrow Crown Court, ringleader David Thomas, 37, from Luton, was jailed for nine and a half years. He also admitted trying to bribe a police officer.
Police surveillance
In sentencing, Judge Alan Greenwood described the group as a professional criminal gang.
They were placed under police surveillance following a tip-off.
They had been placed under police surveillance early on in the planning of the heist following a tip-off, police said after sentencing.
The gang had spent months "meticulously planning" the robbery and travelling to Cirencester several times to observe the warehouse.
On Christmas Eve they drove to the site in two stolen cars and two vans, armed with coshes, ammonia, heavy-duty tape and handcuffs.
Around £26m of computer equipment was in the warehouse at the time, police said.
Examination of the two vans suggested that they would have been able to carry approximately £4.5m worth of equipment, the court was told.
Bribery bid
Ringleader Thomas was jailed for nine-and-a-half years for conspiracy to rob and perverting the course of justice.
Recording of Thomas trying to bribe officer
While on bail over the offences, Thomas offered £50,000 to a Flying Squad officer in an attempt to sabotage the prosecution case against him.
The officer alerted the Metropolitan Police's anti-corruption command about the bribery bid and Thomas was recorded trying to bribe him.
"If we can get this thing crushed, yeah...you come up with a figure, yeah...," Thomas was heard saying in recordings played out to the jury.
Thus proving that not all people interested in computers are smart...