Gang jailed for posing as police to rob tourists on Kent highway

A gang of thieves have been jailed for a total of 19 years for posing as police officers and stopping tourists on the M20 and A20 in Kent to take cash off them.

A court heard how the Romanian men used fake police badges, stop signs and flashing blue lights to rob £25,000 from foreign drivers.

According to Kent Online, Judge James O'Mahony told them: "This was organised professional crime where you carried out serious thefts of victims in cars on the highway."

In September, they stopped a Portuguese driver on the A20 and two of the men flashed a fake police warrant, conning the tourist into giving them £2,500.

On 6 October, they stopped a van driver parked at an M20 service station and showed their fake badges before taking £2,000 from a jacket.

According to the Daily Mail, the gang will be deported after they have served their jail sentences.

Prosecutor Janet Weeks told Canterbury Crown Court they were "modern-day highwaymen targeting foreign nationals and directly undermining confidence in the police".

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