A CRIMINAL gang which smashed its way into a jewellers on New Year’s Eve has been locked up.

Cosmin Moraru was the final member of the Romanian criminal gang to be sentenced for his part in a series of 11 ‘meticulously planned’ raids, which saw them flee with £3.1m-worth of goods.

The offenders plotted to burgle stores in nine counties, including Oxford’s Goldsmiths store on December 31, 2015.

A total of 11 masked men smashed their way into the jewellers in the Clarendon Centre, using fixed steel wires to stop vehicle access at the end of Queen Street and shielding their faces from security cameras with umbrellas.

Seven men donning high-visibility jackets, and one man pulling a green wheelie bin, congregated in Market Square, opposite the shopping centre, at about 3.45am.

A group of four others went in pairs to the opposite ends of Queen Street, fixing the steel wires across the road.

The gang then ran into Cornmarket Street, hammering their way into the centre and forcing open the shop shutters. Moraru of Spring Grove, Naden Road, Birmingham, was jailed for eight years and one month at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court on Thursday, Staffordshire Police confirmed.

The 25-year-old was sentenced for conspiracy to commit burglary and conspiracy to commit arson between November 2015 and September 2016. Six other gang members were jailed for a total of 47 years last month.