A FORMER spokesman for the Dale Farm travellers has been jailed for five-and-a-half years for his role in a gang which conspired to steal priceless Chinese artefacts from British museums.

Richard Sheridan, 47, was one of 13 members of the gang, dubbed the Rathkeale Rovers for their links to the Irish town, who were given jail sentences this week.

Two more south Essex gang members, Paul Pammen, 49, of Alton Gardens, Southend, and Richard "Kerry" O'Brien, 31, of Dale Farm, in Oak Lane, Crays Hill, were also jailed for five-and-a-half years.

The £57million conspiracy saw the gang "plunder" British museums of rhino horn and other valuable artefacts.

They targeted high value objects in a string of break-ins, including Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Museum and Durham's Oriental Museum in 2012.

At Birmingham Crown Court, Judge Murray Creed heard the value of items stolen from the two museums was about £18million, but detectives believe they might have fetched three times as much on the booming Chinese auction market.

Mr Creed said: "It is a conspiracy both sophisticated, skilled and persistent, and involved significant cultural loss to the UK of museum quality artefacts and items from international collections."

The judge said the operation had started off as small-scale, but after several initial failures, the scheme became more high-profile.

In their most successful theft, 18 pieces of Chinese jade were stolen from the Fitzwilliam Museum, before the haul dropped off by taxi at Purfleet station car park to be taken away for storage.

Sheridan, 47, now of Water Lane, Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, was linked with the conspiracy after he was seen in the company of Donald Wong, described in court as the gang's "buyer, seller and valuer", shortly before £50,000 in cash was found in the Chinese businessman's car.

Jail sentences for other members of the gang varied from 15 months to six years and eight months.

The judge said the conspiracy centred on the town of Rathkeale, where the O'Brien family is originally from.

Mr Creed said: "At the heart of this enterprise was a family - a number of you are members of the O'Brien family.

"Of 14 original conspirators, seven were connected with that home, seven were associates, while others were recruited in to find thieves prepared to carry out burglaries.

"No doubt others were involved too."

A 14th gang member had already admitted his part in the conspiracy and was jailed last year.

Det Supt Adrian Green, who led the investigation, said: "Because of the complexity we were only able to get a conspiracy to steal and that's capped at seven years, which is a bit of a shame.

"I'm just really pleased that we've been able to bring them to justice."