BRAZEN masked raiders drilled through a brick wall to reach a cage of laptops and phones in an £80,000 heist.

Marian Ghita and Cristian Rusu were part of a gang of four men seen burgling the Curry’s PC World store in Old Shoreham Road, Hove.

The gang stole laptops and mobile phones worth tens of thousands of pounds.

But they did not know they had also stolen a tracker phone – and they were hunted down by police and arrested while driving in an Audi on the A23.

The two Romanian men said they had faced money worries since living in the UK, with “naive” Rusu claiming he was in debt to money lenders he had borrowed from when he was unable to pay for food.

In a Skype hearing before Hove Crown Court they admitted burglary and were told they both face deportation.

Ghita, 44, who also has a criminal record for people trafficking, was sentenced to six years in prison in 2011.

Kyle Fournillier, prosecuting, said the heist took place at 5.30am on March 17. The store had been closed by bosses ahead of the formal lockdown.

He said: “Officers found a large hole had been drilled into the brick wall at the back of the shop premises. It gave them access to the stock room.

“CCTV showed four persons entering, they were all covering their face and wearing gloves. They accessed a metal cage containing electrical goods.”

Ghita, of Ivinghoe Road, Dagenham, also known by other names, came to the UK as a cleaner.

He was jailed for two and a half years.

His advocate Dhaneshwar Ram Sharma said: “He had difficulties paying his rent, but knows that does not give him the right to help himself to other people’s property.”

Rusu, 29, of Auckland Road, Redbridge, was “naive” and exploited by a money-lending gang after getting into money trouble, his barrister Andrew Stephens said. He was jailed for two years.

“He knew what he was doing was wrong, but at that moment in time, he felt like he had no other option,” Mr Stephens said.

Judge Shani Barnes said: “This was a sophisticated and brazen enterprise. There was a gang of four involved.

“You used equipment to drill an enormous hole in the area of the shop that must have been looked at in advance as it led directly to the cage where items were stored. Somewhere between £50,000 and £80,000 worth of items were stolen.”