CCTV Lawn Tennis Club cameras recorded the burglary gang targeting nearby house. Image: Google Street View

A gang of burglars who committed 20 offences and stole property worth around £1 million have been jailed as a result of CCTV running from the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Club.

Three men have been sentenced to a total of 17 and a half years imprisonment after an inquiry by the MPS Merton Burglary Squad.

The gang specialised in residential burglaries.

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The Merton inquiry got underway in July last year when CCTV linked three men in a car to a residential burglary in Somerset Road, Wimbledon.

Two high-value motor vehicles were stolen.

The large detached house in an affluent neighbourhood was next door to the All England Tennis Club, home of the Wimbledon Championships.

CCTV gathered from the Lawn Tennis Association revealed images of the offenders and the vehicle they used- hired by Mohamed Alam.

Operation Bardet was then set up to investigate a number of cross border burglaries from October 2013 to July 2014.

A number of linked offences were identified in which large detached properties in affluent neighbourhoods were targeted.

The burglars would force entry into the property and if they found a safe they would steal it.

They were undeterred by security measures, disabling alarm systems and CCTV cameras.

Detectives identified 21  offences stretching across the Boroughs of Merton, Wandsworth, Barnet, Hillingdon, Kingston and also in the county of Hertfordshire.

Police were watching in August 2014 when Alam, Juied and Miah approach a large detached property in Nicholas Way, Northwood.

Juied and Miah used a crow bar to force open a downstairs window while Alam acted as lookout.

When the house alarm was set off, the pair silenced it by smashing the control box and box and ‘conducted an untidy search.’

Juied and Alam were arrested. Miah, who fled, was later arrested in east London.

Detective Sergeant Dan Mitchell, from Merton Borough Burglary Team, said:

I hope these convictions serves as a warning to anyone looking to commit crime on this borough. The Metropolitan Police Service takes the offence of burglary very seriously and will do everything within their power to target burglary offenders and bring them to justice.