A Romanian gang who carried out seven raids in six months after coming to the UK specifically to steal gold from jewellery shops have been jailed.
An Old Bailey judge said the 10 members, who made off with more than £1m in gold, had not done a day's legitimate work while in the country.
He handed down prison terms totalling 82 years and 10 months despite the crooks pleading guilty and having no previous convictions.
Judge Timothy Pontius told them they would be deported after serving their sentences and he warned eastern European criminals that British courts would not be a "soft touch".
He said: "None of the defendants appear to have done an honest day's work while they were here. All will be deported, and rightly so."
The 10 gang members were jailed for a total of 82 years He said there were fears an influx of people from Romania and Bulgaria when restrictions are lifted next year would lead to an increase in crime.
And the judge warned: "Anyone who comes to the UK - irrespective of whatever part of the world - wanting to commit serious crime, must clearly understand such abuse of the hospitality of this country and its people must be seriously punished.
"It follows that the more grave the crime, the more severe the retribution will be. No one should think for a moment that courts in the UK will be a soft touch.
"Sentences such as these must be a powerful deterrent not only to homegrown but imported criminals."
The Romanian gang, which pleaded guilty to conspiracy to rob, emptied display cabinets and fled in minutes before police could respond to alarms.
A jewellers in Wembley was one of the gang's targets They targeted Asian and Turkish jewellers in London where there was a large quantity of high-carat gold which could be melted down and sold.
The raids usually involved one of the gang, dressed in pin-stripes and a trilby hat, being buzzed in and holding the door for an accomplice to smash his way in with a sledgehammer.
The rest of the gang would then run in and batter display cabinets with bats and hammers before fleeing with gold jewellery.
They would make off over railway lines, discarding their weapons and outer clothing.
The gang netted more than £1.1m last year but only £135,580 has been recovered.
They were caught red-handed during a robbery in north London last September after officers kept watch on a makeshift campsite they were using on waste ground near the A12 in Essex.
Following his arrest, one of the gang members, 25-year-old Ovidiu Gabor, told police: "I don't care, I go to prison to go on holiday."
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