Two burka-clad robbers threatened former phone shop colleagues with a meatcleaver before tying them up and leaving with £40,000 worth of gadgets and cash. 

Mohammed Sabek, 27, and Aneel Khan, 28, robbed the Phones 4U store in Putney High Street - where they had both previously worked - wearing the religious garments to conceal their identity.

They approached a sales assistant who was serving a customer, threatened him with a meat cleaver and instructed him to close the front door.

They forced the assistant, the customer and the store manager into a basement and tied them up before loading more than £40,000 worth of phones, tablets, accessories and cash into suitcases and taking a taxi to Hounslow. 

But they were caught when officers spotted them on CCTV inside a coffee shop without their disguises following an aborted robbery two days before. 

Today, October 24, Sabek, of Grosvenor Road, Chiswick and Khan, of Great Woodcote Park, Purley, were both jailed for five years for conspiracy to rob at Kingston Crown Court. 

Detective Constable John Baldwin, from Wandsworth CID, said: "Both Sabek and Khan are now facing a long jail sentence because they thought by wearing clothing to conceal their face and body they could commit crime and not be caught.

"What both of them failed to realise is that the Met will use specialist teams and equipment to catch and prosecute those responsible for such acts.

"I hope that these sentences serve as a reminder to anybody thinking of committing serious crimes, that sooner or later they will be serving a lengthy custodial sentence."

Both men were ex-employees of the Phones 4U branch, who had been under investigation by the store for misconduct.

Sabek had resigned two months before the robbery, on October 2, 2012, and Khan a month before.

The Metropolitan Police said finding the culprits required "a lengthy and complex investigation".