TWO armed robbers were jailed on Friday for raids which led to one of the gang being shot dead by police marksmen.

Dean Jenkins, 40, of Wilks Close, Rainham, was sentenced to 17 years for five armed robberies in Kent on Group 4 Securicor guards at the Nationwide Building Society in Paddock Wood, Strood, Birchington and New Romney and one at the Abbey National Bank in Herne Bay, netting a total of almost £340,000.

Ben Grehan, 22, of Upper Norwood, south east London, was sentenced to 12 years for the Herne Bay, Paddock Wood and New Romney raids.

Jenkins's father, former special constable and ex-Securicor guard David Jenkins, 61, of Pantheon Gardens, Kingsnorth, Ashford, was jailed for 10 years for acting as lookout at the New Romney robbery.

It was there on October 31 last year that Robert Haines, 41, of Canterbury Road, Challock, was gunned down by an officer known only as Echo 19.

The officer fired three times at Haines, the ringleader described by Judge Philip Statman as being capable of extreme violence, after the robber opened fire as he fled with £105,000.

The judge said at Maidstone Crown Court that the execution of the robberies was "ruthless" and placed them "at the top of the premier division".

He commended both Flying Squad officers, several of whom were in court, and Kent Police for the way they acted and conducted the investigation.

The marksmen involved were the same Metropolitan Police crackshots who killed innocent Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes in London, believing he was a terrorist.