A young man was yesterday starting a two-year prison sentence for taking part in a "sophisticated" burglary which nearly crippled British Telecom House.

The break-in caused hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of damage to the Southend office's computers, leaving hundreds of employees unable to work until repairs had been made.

Tyrone Hedley, 22, of New Cross, London, had pleaded guilty to two charges of burglary at a previous court hearing.

A gang of burglars first broke into BT House in Victoria Avenue in July 1996 by forcing a fire exit door on the sixth floor, a level containing a large number of computer terminals, Basildon Crown Court heard.

Prosecuting, Maria Dineen said microchips and Pentium processors were removed from 25 computers on this floor, rendering the machines useless.

The gang then smashed its way into the office's main communication room on the building's fourth floor and forced open two cabinets containing large computer servers.

The main computer processor and microchips were taken and two other glass cabinets housing servers, valued at £7,000 each, were smashed.

Chips and processors were removed from another 14 computer terminals on this floor.

Ms Dineen said: "The loss to the business was assessed at £119,000 by a BT expert, but we do not have a value to what was stolen.

"Over 500 members of staff work in the building and many were unable to work until repairs had been carried out."

The court heard the gang returned to the office in January 1997.

They ransacked six computer terminals and again smashed their way into the main communication room, where two server units were forced open.

Ms Dineen said blood was found on a cable after the first raid and on a panel after the second break-in.

Hedley was arrested at Lewisham police station after attending with his solicitor in July last year.

A DNA match was found from a sample of his hair with the blood found at the burglaries.

Defending, Jonathan Ellis said his client claimed he was just the lookout for a gang of five burglars who masterminded the break-ins.

He claimed he was paid only £50 for the first raid and £250 for the second, and had cut his hand helping out on both occasions.

Mr Recorder Pauluez sentenced Hedley to two years in prison for both burglaries, the sentences to run at the same time. He ordered Hedley to serve at least half the sentence before release.

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