A GANG of burglars who raided homes across West Sussex have been jailed for more than 30 years.

A pond behind the home of Mark Coop and Robert Mayers, both formerly of Worthing, became a dumping ground for items the thieves could not sell.

Officers were able to link possessions dredged from the water to the criminals and their crimes across the county.

Coop and Mayers along with Daniel Oliver, Darren Hebberd and Sam Beeney broke into at least 14 homes in Worthing, Climping, Lancing, Ferring, Findon, Angmering, North Chailey and West Hoathly and used the victims’ own pillowcases or boxes to carry away their haul of jewellery and other items.

The crimes happened between June 2013 and June 2014.

When a dog pulled a man’s jacket from a pond in Whitebeam Woods in 2014, just yards from Mark Coop and Robert Mayers’ home, a team from Sussex Police’s specialist search unit scoured the water and recovered more than 850 items linked to the gang.

Officers were able to link items such as watches, necklaces and rings from the pond to six burglaries and to the offenders.

All five men were charged with conspiracy to commit 14 burglaries. They each pleaded guilty when they appeared at Brighton Magistrates’ Court and were sentenced at Lewes Crown Court on Monday.

Oliver, 25, of no fixed address, was jailed for six years.

Hebberd, 21, of Church Way, Worthing, was jailed for four years and eight months. Coop, 27, formerly of Whitebeam Road, Durrington, near Worthing, was jailed for seven years and ten months after he was convicted of conspiracy to commit burglary and a separate charge of burglary.

Mayers, 19, of Whitebeam Road, Worthing, was jailed for nine years after he was convicted of conspiracy to commit burglary and separate counts of burglary, robbery, possession of a kitchen knife and possession of knuckledusters.

Beeney, 18, of Offington Drive, Worthing, is to be sentenced on July 31.

Det Con Emma Fields, of the priority crime team, said: “They were a prolific gang and having them off the streets for several years will reduce the chance of people becoming a burglary victim.”