Four gang members have been jailed for plotting to retrieve a sub-machine gun linked to a series of underworld shootings from a stolen car in Hackney.

Hackney Gazette: Sertac OzgurelSertac Ozgurel (Image: Archant)

Remand prisoners Sertac Ozgurel, 26, and Dennis Royes, 29, gave orders relating to the Mac-10 “spray and pray” weapon from behind bars.

Hackney Gazette: Ramzi AbdulhamidRamzi Abdulhamid (Image: Archant)

Accomplices Omar Lewis, 32, and Ramzi Abdul-Hamid, 22, were enlisted to get the gun from a stolen Lexus 4x4.

Hackney Gazette: Yusef LewisYusef Lewis (Image: Archant)

But local residents called police after hearing the pair’s botched attempts to remove the weapon and officers impounded the car with the gun still inside.

Ozgurel, of Sandgate House, Pembury Estate, and Royes, of no fixed address, were in custody charged with a gang-related attack in Cambridge – for which they were later sentenced to 14 years behind bars – and used code words to try and avoid detection.

Lewis, of Gower Road, Forest Gate and a fellow member of the Pembury Boys gang, based in Lower Clapton, was told to “get the earner from the whip” – meaning get the gun from the car.

The four admitted conspiracy to transfer a weapon at Snaresbrook Crown Court.

Ozregul had seven years added to his 14-year-term on Friday, while Royes was handed an extra four years.

Abdul-Hamid, of Monteagle Way, Lower Clapton, who was jailed for nine years for breaching a suspended sentence before he was brought to court for attempting to retrieve the gun, received an extra 40 months.

Lewis, who has no previous convictions, was jailed for 40 months.

The Mac-10, which was loaded with live rounds, had been used in gang-related shootings in 2007 and 2010, though there is no evidence showing it was fired by any of the defendants.

The stolen Lexus was fitted with fake number plates and had “clearly been used in gang and criminal enterprise.”