FOUR men who carried out dawn ram-raids on two banks using a JCB and a lorry have each been jailed for seven years.

The men took nearly £136,000 in the first attack on the HSBC Bank in Birchington on July 14 last year.

But Canterbury Crown Court heard how the second attack, on the nearby Barclays Bank, failed when the JCB digger got jammed in the debris.

Nathan Deakin, 32, of St Christopher Close, Margate, Brian Kilpatrick, 41, of Myrtle Road, Folkestone, Robert Waddington, 47, of Bramble Tree Crescent, Rochester, and Adrian Gowers, 43, of Wildfell Close, Chatham, all admitted two burglary charges.

Prosecutor Eunice Shang-Simpson told how the gang stole a JCB, a tipper lorry and a Rover car before the attack.

Shortly after 3am on July 14, the convoy converged on the HSBC Bank - with the JCB then being driven through the front window.

Shang-Simpson said: "The JCB then ripped out one of the two cash machines and loaded it onto the back of the tipper lorry. It then repeated the process and loaded a second machine onto the lorry, which then drove down Station Road in Birchington."

The three vehicles were then driven along the road to Barclays Bank in a second attack.

Ms Shang-Simpson added: "However, the JCB got stuck in the debris and the offenders then made off in the lorry and Rover."

She said said £97,000 worth of damage was done to Barclays and £47,795 to HSBC.

The thieves then raced away along the seawall until the raiders got their getaway car stuck in a field.

It was found by police five hours later, abandoned along a farm track near Minnis Bay. The thieves had let off a fire extinguisher to erase forensic evidence.

Officers then searched the Reculver area later that morning and found the thieves near a white transit van, with Irish number plates, on a farm track.

Ms Shang-Simpson added: "They then got into the van and the officers gave chase. At Horse Lane, Sturry, the officers caught up and the van stopped in the centre of the road and then reversed at speed ramming the police car.

"The van later crashed into an embankment and all four were arrested," she said.

Judge Timothy Nash, in sentencing the men, told them: "I turn on the TV news and I read local papers and whether its east, north or west Kent, these offences are being committed at the rate of almost one a month.

"And why? Because there is a big sum of money if it works. All you have to do is help yourself to a digger, left on its own by some silly farmer, who doesn't know the realty of life. It is no wonder that you were tempted.

"But you didn't get your hands on the money because the police were a good deal smarter than you were and you were caught red-handed."

The judge also recommended that the two Ramsgate-based officers PCs, Dave Towner and Michael Franklin, be commended for their courage.

He said: "They were confronted with a group of violent people who had a weapon - namely a van. Undeterred, they pursued their quarry and without their tenacity, these four would not have been brought to justice.

"It took courage, persistence, judgment and common sense."

Ch Supt Peter West, Area Commander for East Kent, says: "These ruthlerss criminals were caught as a result of the courage and determination of the police work by officers based at Thanet.

"The incident happened in the early hours of the morning and the community should be reassured that Kent Police is tackling criminality at all hours of the day and night."