A ram-raider who tried to steal a Co-op cash machine with a van leading to a cross-county police chase has been jailed.

George Jones, 31, was given a sentence of four years and nine months at Maidstone Crown Court yesterday, after admitting conspiracy to burgle and dangerous driving at a previous hearing.

On Wednesday, April 6, last year, three men attempted to drag a cash machine out of the store in Station Road, Longfield.

Two vans arrived a around 4am that day and one was used to break through the front window.

A strap was tied around the ATM inside the shop and attached to the chassis bar of the other van.

Two attempts were made to pull the machine out of the shop but the second attempt broke the van's chassis.

Video footage shared by police shows the moment the chassis broken off the van and pictures from the scene show it left behind.

The three men involved then drove away and switched into a third van in Sandbanks Hill.

Police officers quickly identified the third van as being involved and it was spotted on the M25.

This led to a chase where the van drove through red traffic lights, the wrong way down a dual carriageway and at speeds of more than 100mph.

The chase ended in a park in Banstead, Surrey, where the vehicle was abandoned.

A police dog found Jones, of no fixed address, hiding under a bush and he was arrested.

Video footage from police shows the moment Jones was found and arrested.

A shirt linking Jones to the scene and to the vehicle was found nearby.

Last year, two men were jailed for a total of more than 16 years for six similar offences around the county between November 2019 and January 2021.

In September, another man was jailed for more than five years for his part in a similar offence which took place in Canterbury in November 2021.

Detective Chief Inspector Christopher Greenstreet, of the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate, said: "With a fourth man now serving a lengthy prison term for this kind of offending, the message to criminals is clear: Come to Kent to steal cash machines and you will be caught and jailed.

"I would like to praise the officers from Kent, the Metropolitan Police and Surrey who responded on the night of this offence, tracking down this man despite his dangerous attempts to get away, and investigators whose work has led to the guilty pleas.

"Measures to help prevent future offences of this kind are now in place and I hope staff and workers at businesses around the county feel safer knowing that those behind this kind of offending are in prison."