Detectives tracked down a trio of burglars after one of them was caught on CCTV filling up his getaway car at a petrol station.

Residents had contacted police about two similar break-ins in the Sandwich area when Cameron Skilton was seen refuelling a Ford Focus linked to the raids.

The car was found to have been used in the first of the burglaries, which happened in September and October last year.

Police reviewed CCTV footage from a petrol station it visited and Skilton was identified as a man seen filling it up with fuel.

Further probing led to detectives identifying Daniel Meehan and Matthew Skinner as two men involved in the second offence.

Skilton was arrested in Brighton in November and later admitted to burglary concerning one of the offences.

Meehan and Skinner were arrested four days later and Meehan admitted two counts of burglary and Skinner one count.

At Canterbury Crown Court yesterday, Skilton, 27, formerly of Bexhill-on-Sea, was jailed for 17 years. His sentence included a term for the importation of prohibited weapons in a separate case.

Meehan, 32, of Albion Hill, Brighton, received a six-and-a-half-year sentence and Skinner, 33, of Rose Walk Close, Newhaven, was jailed for two years and two months.