Two brothers who stole more than £1 million worth of goods in 21 burglaries across the country have been jailed.

Linchum Price, 20, and John Price, 19, were sentenced to six years in prison after they admitted being involved in the raids across 12 different counties that involved expensive cars and jewellery.

The duo targeted homes they believed to have high-valued items inside.

Canterbury Crown Court heard how the brothers indulged in shopping sprees at Harrods after selling their stolen goods - on one occasion spending £800 on a pair of children's shoes.

On Thursday, April 5, they committed three burglaries in Kent over a three-hour period, targetting houses in Park Avenue, Dover and two in Greystones, Ashford.

Litchum Price was seen on CCTV knocking on the door at the Dover address and soon after three men, covering their faces, broke into the house and stole £1,000 in gold from the property.

The home-owner was alerted to the intrusion by his security system and when he returned to his house he saw two men leaving, while brandishing a knife.

They also committed a burglary in Freemantle Road, Folkestone, two days later, where they stole £14,500 of cash, £6,300 worth of jewellery.

The pair were both linked to the incidents after after automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras recognised the same Ford S-Max was being used in both burglaries and detectives identified the brothers were using cloned number plates.

CCTV and ANPR also placed them at burglaries in Lincolnshire, Ipswich, Leicestershire, Hertfordshire, Nottinghamshire.

On Tuesday, May 29, John Price, of Hargood Close, Colchester, was stopped at a service station in Peterborough where several number plates were located in his car, resulting in his arrest.

Linchum Price, of Northampton Road, Broughton, Kettering, was arrested on Monday, June 18, after police officers noticed a car driving past them while they were dealing with a suspicious vehicle.

They pulled over Price and arrested him after a number plates, knives and anti-bacterial spray was found in his car.

The pair were later charged with conspiracy to commit burglary.

Detective Sergeant Rob Goodban, who was leading the case, said: "These men were organised and calculated, selling the gold in Hatton Garden and setting up accounts with Harrods to launder the money from their ill-gotten gains.

"They planned their offences, often observing properties to check the occupants were not home then arming themselves and breaking in.

"They relentlessly targeted their victims, travelling to where they believed would be profitable and striking several times in one day.

"They were forensically aware, using anti-bacterial cleaner to try and remove forensic traces and evidentially aware, trying to evade justice by using vehicles on cloned plates.

"The Price brothers thought they would escape arrest by travelling around the country to steal.

"However we work closely with our partners in other forces to strengthen our cases against these criminals."