A GANG of burglars who targeted dozens of secluded houses in Hampshire have been jailed.

The raiders picked 27 targets and struck when the properties were empty, often with the owners away on holiday, Winchester Crown Court heard.

They netted goods valued at £127,831.85, mainly electrical or jewellery, between April and November last year. Most has not been recovered.

Garry Harrison, 40, Samuel Masters, 23, and Mark Hayward, 25, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to burgle.

The police said Harrison, of Manor Road, New Milton, was the ringleader. He admitted involvement in 26 of the 27 raids and was jailed for four years.

Masters, a mechanic for the Royal Mail, of Southampton Road, Bartley, admitted taking part in six raids and received 14 months; Mark Hayward, of Winsor Road, Winsor, also got 14 months for his role in ten.

Prosecuting, Daniel Sawyer said: “The three defendants, together with at least two others, were involved in a conspiracy over several months to burgle houses.

They were all in relatively secluded locations either in the countryside or outskirts of villages, often set back from the road behind hedges.

“The raiders always struck at night and when the properties were empty.

The gang used scouts to reconnoitre the land and lookouts to keep watch with the burglars keeping in contact via text messages, the court heard.

Richard Martin, mitigating for Harrison, said: “It cannot be luck that the places were always empty. That was Harrison’s wish that nobody was disturbed.”

Mr Martin added that Harrison now hoped to steer clear of crime following the example of his father, a former career criminal.

David Reid, for Masters, said he had lost a good job and flat.

“He was seduced by the money he saw his co-defendants had when he visited them,” he said.

The court heard that Hayward was extremely vulnerable, suggestible and with low-intelligence who had profited little by taking part.

Sentencing, Judge Andrew Barnett, Recorder of Salisbury, said the crimes “were determined and mean. You have invaded people’s privacy. You take property and leave people with the feeling of being violated.”

More than 20 of the targets were in the New Forest, including Brockenhurst, Sway, Tiptoe and Milford-on-Sea but also as far north as Sherfield English near Romsey and west as far as Dorchester in Dorset.

Senior investigator Det Insp Paul Gelman said: “The judge’s summing up that this was a mean offence is apt.

The impact on victims is considerable.”

His colleague Det Con Chris Bradford added: “This was a group of men who invaded peoples’ homes and stole their possessions purely out of greed, regardless of the devastation left behind.”