A robber who fled to Ireland after he took part in a bungled ram raid at a security depot has been jailed for over 11 years.

Karl Delaney, formerly from Sheppey, escaped justice for over three years before being caught and extradited back to the UK in August.

The 38-year-old had denied the offence as well as involvement in theft of £1.8 million of computer chip wafers, but pleaded guilty after asking a judge for an indication of the sentence that would be passed.

He was sentenced to 11 years and three months.

The raid on Loomis UK in Mark Way, Swanley, failed when a digger smashed into a loading bay instead of a cash vault containing over £1 million.

Delaney, Ray Betson, formerly of Chatham and now of Clifton Crescent, Folkestone, and others wielded baseball bats and wore black boiler suits in the raid in the early hours of March 23, 2012.

Police later found a balaclava, a snood and a stopwatch dumped in bushes, as well as an abandoned Mitsubishi Warrior 4x4.

Prosecutor Christopher May said forensic tests on the balaclava and snood revealed a DNA profile matching Betson’s.

Betson, who represented himself at his trial at Maidstone Crown Court in July, denied attempted robbery but was convicted and jailed for 13 years.

Judge Charles Macdonald QC allowed the prosecution to tell the jury about his previous conviction in 2002 for conspiracy to commit robbery at the Millennium Dome, where there was an exhibition of £200 million of De Beers diamonds.

Betson, who referred to it as “the Dome caper”, was jailed for 18 years, later reduced to 15 years on appeal.

He drove a JCB in that raid in 2000, which was also doomed to failure.

Mr May said after the Loomis raid, Delaney’s DNA was found on the steering wheel of the abandoned car, a glove and a “talkabout” radio.

The computer chips were stolen from the Jan de Rijk depot in Feltham, near Heathrow in September 2012. They had been recently delivered from Ireland.

Delaney has evaded justice for almost three years but we are pleased to see him be returned to England and sentenced to a long time in prison for his part in the offences - Detective Sergeant Rik Spicer

A car and a van, which was stolen in Sittingbourne, were used to travel from Kent to commit the offence. Over £100,000 of damage was caused.

Three others involved had previously been sentenced. Adrian Gowers was given five years and three months and Darren Tyrrell and Desmond Schwartz were each given three years and nine months.

Commenting on Delaney's sentence, Detective Sergeant Rik Spicer from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate said: “Delaney took part in two offences; one was a high-value theft and the other certainly had the potential to be.

“Delaney has evaded justice for almost three years but we are pleased to see him be returned to England and sentenced to a long time in prison for his part in the offences.”