A MAN who dressed up as a police officer to steal millions of pounds in a series of audacious break-ins has been given a ten year prison sentence.

Denis Carr, 36, was one of five phoney policemen who made off with laundry bags containing five million pounds’ worth of communication equipment at a raid on December 6 2007.

The gang were buzzed in by staff at Verizon, a telecommunications firm based in St Pancras Way, Islington, after saying through the intercom that police needed to access the roof because intruders were lurking there.

The staff were then handcuffed and told this was for their own safety because they couldn't distinguish them from the intruders.

Four accomplices, who weren’t in uniform, joined the gang of robbers who combed a hundred rooms to find the equipment.

Carr, of Great Cambridge Road, was arrested in January 2007 while committing a further burglary in Croydon.

He was sentenced on 31 July 2009 to ten years for the Verizon robbery.

His sentence will run alongside a further nine year term for attempting to steal money and drugs in St John’s Wood and eight years for a burglary in January 2008 in Croydon. He pleaded guilty Blackfriars Crown Court to all three offences.

His partner in crime was Terry Ellis, 44, of New Priory Court, Mazenod Avenue, West Hampstead, who was dressed in body armour and a police baseball cap for the Verizon robbery.

He was today given nine years for this robbery, eight years for attempting to steal money and drugs in St John’s Wood and nine years for a robbery at Marigold Health Foods in Camley Street near Kings Cross. The sentences will be added to a drugs offence for which he is currently serving seven and a half years.

Acting Detective Inspector Raj Mahajan, from the MPS's Operation Grafton, said: "These two men were the lynchpins in the organisation of these robberies. They used police uniform to con their way into the building, in the process putting the victims they deceived through a very traumatic experience.

"The sentences they have received are a clear indication of the seriousness of the offences they committed and should act as a deterrent to anyone else considering a similar type of venture."