A GANG which stole lorry loads of goods worth £350,000 from all over Britain has been jailed for a total of 20 years at Worcester Crown Court.

West Mercia police recovered goods that included Easter eggs, Fishermen's Friends sweets, alcohol, nappies and canned fruit.

A farm near Hanbury, Droitwich, was used by the crooks to hide loads, and a supermarket in the Black Country was one of 20 outlets where property ended up for sale to unsuspecting customers.

Recorder Christopher Murray told the gang: "This was a highly-sophisticated, highly-professional and commercial conspiracy conducted like an Army operation."

He sentenced twins Mark and Andrew Parkes and Jason Cresswell, to five years jail each and branded them "the prime movers" in the scam.

He gave farm owner Tony Webley three years and said he had jeopardised his reputation for "easy pickings".

And in sentencing supermarket manager Jugjit Sunar to two years' prison, last Thursday, he said he had brought his hardworking family into disrepute.

Mark Parkes, of King Street, Bilston; Cresswell, also 29, of Priory Road, Rood End, Oldbury, West Midlands, and Webley, 53, of Bridge Farm, Bradley Green, near Hanbury, admitted conspiracy to steal before the trial began.

Sunar, 30, of Wolverhampton Road, Sedgley, Dudley, admitting receiving stolen goods.

The gang raided container depots as far apart as Sheffield, Gloucester and Barnstable, Devon. A barn at Webley's farm was used to store and transfer property.

Ten lorry thefts began in November, 1999, when cases of alcopops went missing from Gloucester Docks.

Nicolas Cartwright, prosecuting, said Cadbury's eggs worth £16,000, copper plate worth £30,000, cat food valued at £10,800 and tyres valued at £26,500 were among the total haul stolen.

The loads totalled £308,819 and the one tractor unit not recovered was worth £45,000.

Police raided the farm on February 21, last year and found a load from Cheshire hidden in a barn. While officers were there, Mark Parkes and two accomplices arrived by car.

One lorry heading for the farm became stuck under a low bridge near Hanbury. The driver fled.

Michael Grey, for Mark Parkes, said he had left the West Midlands and was making a new life for himself in Cheshire. Much of his offending in the plot was to receive stolen goods.

Richard Burrington, for Andrew Parkes, said his family would suffer from his imprisonment.

William Baker, for Cresswell, said he was desperate to support his four children.

Webley's barrister David Hegarty said he was suffering from ill health and had only made £200 from the plot.

And Ranjit Lallie for Sunar said Camelot had taken a Lottery machine from his father's shop in Mervyn Place, Bilston, where some stolen goods were taken, and his father had resigned as director of his local temple.