Oyster card journeys help jail burglars who raided South Asian families' homes for gold

Masked raiders who went room to room hunting for gold jewellery were undone by their own travel cards. Clirim Ferizi, 26, and Oresti Saliaj, 40, covered their faces on CCTV, so Met detectives turned to timestamped Oyster records instead and found Ferizi filmed topping up at Ruislip station, paid for with his own debit card, after the Shenley Avenue raid.

Burglar Hetaj Dionis was caught on an Ealing rooftop with a crowbar and stolen goods within minutes.

'Deliberately targeted families in their own homes', said Detective Sergeant Ross Smith, who led the Met inquiry.

Flying Squad tied Patrick Doherty, 24, to a gang raiding London and nearby counties, jailing him for 45 months.