A GANG of men who posed as police to steal thousands of pounds, jewellery and cars will be sentenced today.

The criminal gang used fake IDs and wore police uniforms to trick their way into a string of homes and businesses across Lancashire and Yorkshire, before tying up the owners and ransacking the properties.

Richard Clancy, aged 26, of Crescent Drive, Little Hulton, and Matthew Cheston, aged 31, of Barchester Avenue, Breightmet, Conor Smith-MacPhee, aged 19, of Halton Bank, Salford, will all be sentenced today at Manchester Minshull Crown Court.

The court heard how during one incident in May 2012, a man was kidnapped from his home in Atherton after believing he was being taken to a police station by officers.

Instead, he was taken to a property in Riverside Drive, Stoneclough, where he was beaten with a shotgun and tortured, while the men demanded he give them £100,000.

Prosecuting barrister Alexander Leech said the men threatened the victim repeatedly and tried to castrate him, but he fought back.

He added: “They put a butt of a gun in his mouth, causing the victim to be terrifying and believe he was going to be killed, either on purpose or accidentally.”

Two weeks earlier the court heard how Clancy went to a home in Queen Street, Farnworth, pretending to be a member of Merseyside Police.