A GANG of robbers who stole an empty cash box have been jailed.

The six, including a 16-year-old boy and a 21-year-old man from Leyton, stole the cash box from a guard delivering to a branch of Nationwide in Fore Street, Edmonton, on August 21 last year.

The boy left the scene in a van which police was driven by Yannick Amini, of Oliver Road, Leyton, towards the North Circular.

The van was thirty minutes later found abandoned in nearby Palmerston Crescent.

The gang was later spotted by police in Green lane, Ilford, where they placed a large item inside a laundry bag before placing it in the boot a car.

Police tried to stop the car but it sped off. After a short high speed chase, the robbers abandoned the car and were pursued on foot.

Three members of the gang were caught, but the boy and Amini were seen getting into a mini-cab.

The cab was stopped nearby and the pair were arrested.

Amini and two other gang members were found to be carrying cash stained with dye that linked him to a robbery the day before in High Road, Tottenham.

The 16-year-old was convicted of conspiring to commit robbery and sentenced to two years in a youth offenders institution.

Amini was sentenced to 5 years for conspiracy to commit robbery and nine months for possessing proceeds of crime.