Armed robbers were caught in a botched house raid - despite dressing up as police officers and driving a fake squad car.

Four masked men and a fifth wearing a fluorescent 'Police' jacket took part in the foiled plot to raid a city financier's home.

Posing as coppers, the gang drove an ambulance car with blue flashing lights which they customised with reflective police stickers.

The crook in the hi-vis jacket called on the victims' intercom and claimed they had been called to a disturbance at their home in Sevenoaks, Kent.

But as soon as the Hogh family opened the electric gates, four masked accomplices jumped out from an alley armed with a fake sawn-off shotgun.

Maidstone Crown Court heard how the men forced their way inside the house in May 2017 and terrified the family.

But they fled empty-handed less than a minute later when the mother managed to activate a panic alarm to alert police.

Judge Julian Smith said the gang's actions terrified the family and the trauma had a "significant impact" on them.

Gang members John Moys, 45, Nicholas Hamill, 35, and Joseph Mezen, 28, were found guilty of conspiracy to rob and possession of an imitation firearm.

Hamill, from Herne Bay in Kent, was jailed for 14-and-a-half years while Mezen, from Herne Bay, was handed a 14-year sentence with a further three years on licence.

Moys from nearby Canterbury, who suffers with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma cancer, faces a bleak ten years behind bars.

Christopher Wray, defending, said hospital tests painted a "bleak picture" and doctors are not yet sure whether his treatment will be effective.

He added: "This is not curable and will eventually take his life."

Accomplice Ronnie Mead helped dispose of the fake police car which was found burnt out in Nottinghamshire.

The 30-year-old, from Dover in Kent, was jailed for almost three years.

Malcolm Maxted, 45, from South Ockendon in Essex, was cleared of conspiracy to commit robbery and possession of an imitation firearm.