THUGS who brought terror to the South of England and Wales with a spree of professional ram-raids and hijackings and were later sprung in a courtroom gun attack, are back behind bars.

One of the hijackings happened in Wootton Bassett, when a van driver was forced to lie in the footwell of his vehicle before being dumped in Slough.

A judge described their flight to freedom as "the worst court escape in English history" after hearing how a policeman was held hostage and shots were fired.

He jailed one of the gang for 12 years and two others for nine years each after hearing details of their crime spree which ended with the gun attack at Slough Magistrates' Court last year.

Ricky Loveridge, Richard Hurley and Terry Downes were described by prosecutor Simon Mayo as a highly organised team of criminals.

Mr Mayo told Judge Hubert Dunn at Woolwich Crown Court that the trio had been members of a criminal gang who stored stolen, high performance cars in lock-up garages in the upmarket villages.

The cars were later used in a series of ram-raids, hijacks and burglaries across the South of England and South Wales.

The gang were in the dock at Woolwich Crown Court, London, to be sentenced for their part in the string of violent raids in the first six months of last year.

Loveridge and Hurley were also sentenced for escaping from Slough court although Downes had not fled during the melee and was not charged with the offence.

Referring to the robberies and attacks, Mr Mayo said that the three were snared after police erected secret CCTV cameras outside the garages in Denham and Hedgerley to film the culprits going in and out.

The trio targeted mostly computer equipment and cash and ram-raided a number of shops in an attempt to remove the cashpoint machines from inside.

In one robbery, which Downes admitted participating in, a van was hijacked at the Interface Industrial Estate in Wootton Bassett and the driver forced to lie in the footwell while the van, which contained computer equipment, was driven back to Iver, Bucking-hamshire.

The driver, who lives in Corsham, was working for Interlink Express Parcels at Westmead and was making his final collection of the day when he was attacked.

He pulled up to a roundabout near the exit to the industrial estate when a red BMW and white Cava-lier drew up behind him. He was approached by three men wearing masks or hoods and carrying bars. They stole computer memory components from the van.

Both Hurley and Loveridge had admitted charges of unlawful escape at a previous hearing.

Judge Dunn was told how during the courtroom drama one man was held hostage at gunpoint and a police sergeant was struck in the face with a shotgun as the masked gang rampaged through Slough Magis-trates Court.

In sentencing the three, Judge Dunn said: "The court escape struck at the heart of the criminal justice system of England. It was the worst incident of escape ever to have happened in England. It was supported by arms and there was violence. Many members of the public were terrified."

Hurley, aged 20, of Feltham, London, was sentenced to a total of 10 years for burglary and robbery offences and two years for escaping from the courtroom. The judge ordered that the sentences should run consecutively.

Loveridge, aged 23, from Horton, near Windsor, was sentenced to eight years for four burglary offences and another year for escaping from court, a total of nine years.

Downes, aged 23, was sentenced to a total of nine years for taking part in three attempted burglaries and one robbery.