Police hunting motorcycle thieves were led to a Broadstairs garage thanks to a tracking device.

When officers went inside the units they discovered the building had been wired with “flash bangs” as security.

Now motorcycle company boss Robert Wells, 28, has been jailed for two years after admitting handling nearly £50,000 worth of stolen bikes and parts.

Prosecutor Daniel Benjamin told Canterbury Crown Court they had been stolen from Yorkshire, Surrey and London.

Wells, of Bromstone Road, Broadstairs, had been arrested after police went to two of his garages in April 2015 after they were alerted by a tracking device on a stolen bike.

Mr Benjamin said that after going inside, the officers triggered security wires attached to “flash bangs”.

But during a search police discovered the bikes and parts - some of which had gone missing during a burglary in Sheffield in 2012.

Three bikes, taken in April 2015, were also discovered inside the workshop which Wells owned, together with equipment capable of stripping down the machines.

Father-of-one Wells set up Rother Valley Bikes in Thanet in January 2014 after returning from Tenerife.

Barrister Richard Padley, defending, said he had run a legitimate motor cycle company “but came into possession” of stolen items.

“He accepts he didn’t check where they had come from and now deeply regrets what he did and is remorseful.”

Judge Simon James told Wells that the thefts had deprived the owners of their means of transport “and caused them substantial inconvenience”.

“This was a professional criminal enterprise which you undertook for financial reward and you only pleaded guilty on the day you were about to stand trial.”

The Crown Prosecution Service has now begun criminal proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act to discover Wells' assets.