Four men have been convicted of being part of a robbery gang whose crime spree only ended when the mastermind and his accomplice were shot dead by police.

Terence Wallace, 26, Adrian Johnson, 28, Leroy Wilkinson, 29, and Victor Iniodu, 34, all from south London, were members of a gang which targeted security vans making cash deliveries to banks, netting £500,000 across the south of England.

Raids took place at the HSBC bank in Summertown, Oxford, and banks in Swindon, Bristol, Bath, Cambridgeshire, Hampshire, Reading, Ipswich and Gloucestershire between April 2006 and September 2007.

The 18-month spree was brought to an end when a police marksman shot ringleader Mark Nunes and accomplice Andrew Markland dead during a foiled raid in Chandlers Ford, Hampshire.

During the month-long trial at Kingston Crown Court, the jury heard that 35-year-old Nunes's "luck ran out" when he was gunned down as he held a pistol to the head of a security guard close to a branch of HSBC in the village.

Markland, 36, was shot dead when he tried to pick up the weapon.