A robber who scaled a 40ft tree after a high-speed police chase along the M2 has been jailed for nine years.

It took trained negotiators over four hours to talk Anthony Boyle down from the tree near Gravesend.

When he was arrested it was discovered he had a mobile phone hidden up his bottom.

Boyle, 30, was one of three men in a convoy of cars who had been trailing a Group 4 Securicor van as it made cash deliveries to ATMS in Thanet and Canterbury.

But the three didn't know they were being kept under surveillance by the Flying Squad.

While the security van was in Broadstairs, Boyle was seen on foot near the van and heard talking on his mobile about the guards.

At Canterbury one of the three, Jason Colliver, 30, from north London made an illegal driving manoeuvre which led to his arrest.

Boyle drove off in his stolen BMW which collided with a police car when officers tried to stop it.

He rotated it on the M2 and sped off towards London at speeds of up to 140mph before abandoning the damaged car near Gravesend.

Police used a helicopter with an infrared camera to track him down and his heat image was seen in a tree about half a mile from the motorway on the freezing cold November evening in 2008.

Earlier the same month, Boyle had been involved with Colliver in robbing guards making cash deliveries in Hampshire.

When the van stopped at New Milton the guards were approached by three masked men.

One had a sledgehammer which was used to smash glass in the door before the robbers made off with £102,580.

The guards feared for their safety and ran to the back of the Halifax where they were delivering and one later needed counselling, said prosecutor Christopher May.

Boyle, of no fixed address, appeared via video link from Belmarsh Prison at Canterbury Crown Court for sentence on Tuesday.

He had admitted robbery on November 4, 2008, and conspiracy to rob between November 15 and 26, 2008.

Mattters were delayed because of mental health issues and a query whether Boyle was in fact fit to plead.

But when Boyle appeared on video link earlier this month, Judge Adele Williams was told fitness to plead was no longer an issue and Boyle entered his guilty pleas.

The court heard he had convictions for robbery, burglary and assault and had been jailed for six years in 2004 for robbery and attempted robbery.

Boyle had been recalled to prison having breached his licence after release.

He was again released on October 22, 2008, two weeks before the Hampshire robbery.

Colliver was given an indeterminate sentence with a minimum of eight and a half years when he appeared at Canterbury Crown Court in November.

A third man who had also been involved in the conspiracy to rob, Darren Harvey, 34, also from North London was jailed for six and a half years.

Stephen Vullo, for Boyle, said he was brought up in a Fagin type situation with his heroin addicted mother getting Boyle to steal for her.

He had been in various children's homes and with foster carers and the only support he received was in prison.

Unlike Colliver, Boyle was not a main organiser, and it was Colliver who recruited Harvey.

Boyle played a lesser role, had already served six years and would be in custody for many more years, said Mr Vullo.

Jailing Boyle, Judge Adele Williams said she gave Boyle credit for his guilty plea but described the offences as "sophisticated criminality".