A gang of raiders who stole more than £186,000 of goods from several businesses across Kent has been jailed for a total of almost 17 years.

The five men targeted golf clubs, shops, petrol stations, builders' yards and a rugby club in an elaborate scam which involved "crude but determined" attempts at cutting telephone wires and using heavy-duty equipment to either break into or remove safes.

Maidstone Crown Court heard they would gain access to telephone cables via BT junction boxes, manhole covers and even cutting down telegraph poles.

Alarm systems at the targeted properties would be activated once lines had been tampered with, but as there was no sign of a break-in it was often attributed by staff to a fault. Premises would then be left for the evening with less security than usual.

"The team would then return and have pretty unrestricted access for a considerable time," explained prosecutor Jonathan Higgs.

As well as the thefts, a trail of extensive damage was left in their wake, valued at almost £150,000 but described as "a considerable underestimate".

Brothers Robert Reader, 32, and Jason Reader, 34, Philip Turner, 23, Danny Kingsnorth, 26, and Darren Berry, 25, - all from Gravesend - admitted conspiracy to burgle between April 2006 and November 2007.

Mr Higgs said, however, that the involvement of Jason Reader, Kingsnorth and Berry was limited to just one or two raids over a time period between June 26 2007 and July 7 2007.

The court heard the gang was linked to many of the raids in Medway, Gravesend, Dartford, Maidstone, Sevenoaks, Sheppey and Thanet through use of the directory enquiries service 118118.

They would request the telephone numbers of the business they were targeting, which would be text to their mobile phones. Once the initial attack of cutting the wires had been carried out, they would telephone to double check the lines were still down before moving in.

The start of many of the raids was captured on CCTV, showing men in dark clothing and wearing balaclavas, before systems were disabled.

Equipment used included angle-grinders, bolt-croppers and sledgehammers. Holes were cut in concrete walls and floors and, during one raid at a garden centre in Gillingham, a fork-lift truck was driven through a brick wall.

Judge Charles Macdonald QC said the offences were so serious that custody was inevitable. He added that Robert Reader, of Medhurst Crescent, and Turner, of Christianfields Avenue, were equally involved as ringleaders. They were each jailed for five years and three months.

Jason Reader, of Valley Drive, was sentenced to two years and three months, and Kingsnorth, also of Medhurst Crescent, and Berry, of Cedar Avenue, were each jailed for two years and one month.