A VIOLENT gang who subjected passengers on the Central Line to a series of robberies have been jailed.

Jeremiah White, and Remell Tulloch, both 18 and of no fixed abode, together with a 17-year-old who cannot be named for legal reasons, carried out a number of vicious attacks on the line including one in Buckhurst Hill.

On January 15 this year, White and Tulloch robbed three 16-year-old-boys of their mobile phones on the platform at Buckhurst Hill station before making off on a westbound train.

Two days earlier they had repeatedly assaulted a 19-year-old American man on a Central Line train while trying to grab his mobile. Bloodied by the attack, he managed to escape at Hainault station.

In another robbery on November 11 last year, they followed a 15-year-old boy on to a westbound train at South Woodford before threatening and then robbing him.

The trio, who were already known to authorities, were tracked down after their images were captured on CCTV footage and circulated to police forces.

White pleaded guilty to five charges of robbery and two charges of attempted robbery, while Tulloch pleaded guilty to five charges of robbery. They were both sentenced at Southwark Crown Court to three years' in prison.

The 17-year-old pleaded guilty to one charge of robbery, and was sentenced to two years' in prison.

London Underground's head of operational support Mike Maynard said: “These violent thugs who targeted our passengers last year are now behind bars where they belong.

“All three were caught on station CCTV, which has helped to bring them to justice and stop them carrying out any more of their attacks.

“This sentence should reassure our passengers that the courts take these types of offences seriously and should also serve as a reminder to criminals that we will identify them and bring them to justice.”