INVESTIGATORS from the National Crime Squad used a room at the top of a Swindon hotel to watch the movements of a suspected gang of computer thieves, a court heard.

And Swindon Crown Court heard how the police officers monitored three cars over the course of several hours in the early hours of June 1 last year, before closing in on the gang after a break-in at the Euroway Motorola building at Blagrove.

While seven men have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to burglary, one man is wanted by police.

One of the gang members who has pleaded guilty to the conspiracy is Sajid Khan, 26, of Manchester Road, Swindon. Two others, Arfan Khan, 25, of Ferndale Road, Swindon, and Martin Miller, 23, of Melfort Road, Peckham, London, both deny conspiracy to burgle between December 19, 1999 and June 2, 2002.

The court has heard how Kevin Leslie, an employee at Surrey-based Sun Microsystems, fed inside information on the whereabouts of the firm's computer equipment in businesses around the South West.

The gang was caught after the NCS learned about its plan to steal equipment from Motorola in Swindon and caught it in the act after three of the gang wearing masks had left a security guard tied up with a waste paper bin on his head.

NCS Detective Constable Gareth Jeremiah told the court that he observed a Fiat coupe in Swindon at just past 11pm on May 15, in which Gbenga Biobaku - whom the prosecution claim is the gang leader - was a front seat passenger.

DC Jeremiah said how, in an unmarked police car, he followed it in Frankland Road as it travelled at speeds of between 5mph and 10mph.

"I would suggest they were doing surveillance," DC Jeremiah told the court. He added that overnight on May 31 and June 1 last year he operated an observation post from a top floor room of the Holiday Inn Express hotel, near Junction 16 of the M4.

At 12.42am on June 1, he said, he saw three vehicles enter Frankland Road and drive slowly past the Motorola building.

He said how the cars under observation were a red Fiat the same in which he had seen Biobaku on May 15 - a people carrier and a white Audi.

He told how police in different covert positions kept watch on the vehicles in the Blagrove area until the gang was intercepted at 5.40am.

The case continues.