A Romanian gang was jailed today for posing as police to rob £25,000 from foreign motorists.
Police described them as ‘modern day highwaymen’ after they took cash from people in overseas vehicles on a Kent motorway.
They tricked the Polish driver and passengers on a minibus into handing over £14,000 by saying they needed to check if it was counterfeit - before jumping into their BMW car and driving away.
The men – who were jailed for a total of 19 years - used fake badges, police stop signs and flashing blue lights to stop victims and also claimed to be searching for drugs.
A second vehicle was used to identify victims and carry the stolen property, false number plates and lighting equipment used in the stings.
Stefanita Iorga, 27, above left, was jailed for five years and four months and Constantin Tanase, 23, above right, was jailed for five years for the crime described as a 'particularly unpleasant enterprise'
The gang – who will be deported on release - struck between August 13 and October 31 last year, along the M20 and A20 in Kent.
On September 8 they stopped Portuguese driver Manuel Feteira-Mendes near Capel-Le-Ferne on the A20.
Two of the gang flashed a fake police warrant card and conned him into handing over £2,500.
On October 6 they stopped a minibus at Maidstone Services claiming they were police conducting a drugs search and took a bag containing cash.
Four days later a van driver was parked at a service station on the M20 when he was woken by someone kicking the door.
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The thieves showed him a fake police badge before taking £2,000 from a jacket.
The men were caught when they tried to steal from the same man three days later and CCTV was used to identify their vehicles.
Prosecutor Janet Weeks said the victim recognised one of the gang and hit him with a spanner, forcing him to run away.
She said there were two more similar incidents in Capel-Le Ferne and Dover when the gang claimed they were police looking for hidden guns, drugs and money.
Ms Weeks said the crime was a ‘particularly unpleasant enterprise, targeting foreign nationals and directly undermining confidence in the police’.
Ninel Besleaga, 30, above left, was sentenced to five years and Alberto Chivea, 25, above right, was jailed for three and a half years for posing as police officers and robbing motorists on the M20 in Kent
Alberto Chivea, 25, from Tottenham, north London, Constantin Tanase, 23, of no fixed address, Stefanita Iorga, 27, from Ilford, Essex, and Ninel Besleaga, 30, from Tottenham, all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal at an earlier court hearing.
On October 31 last year one of the suspect vehicles was spotted in Folkestone.
Police stopped it and arrested Besleaga, a car washer, and dad-of-three Chivea, and found a substantial amount of cash.
Automatic number plate recognition cameras located the second vehicle heading out of Kent into Essex on the M20 and Iorga, a car washer, and Tanase, a waiter, were arrested.
Today Iorga was jailed for five years and four months, Tanase and Besleaga for five years and Chivea to three and a half years in prison.
Judge James O'Mahony told them: ‘This was organised professional crime where you carried out serious thefts of victims in cars on the highway.’
The four men were recommended to be deported when they finish their jail sentences.
Detective Constable Robert Goodban of Kent Police said: ‘The offences committed are a modern day version of the old highwayman thefts.
‘The offenders sought to prey on the vulnerabilities of foreign nationals, using false identity, being that of a police officer, to enable the theft to occur.
‘I believe the sentencing represents the serious nature of the offences committed in what is a rather unique case.’