A pair of gangsters who hid a "sinister" stash of lethal weapons beneath pot plants and garden gnomes have been jailed.

James Gilbert, 23, and Tony Waller, 21, buried three firearms including a military machine gun under paving slabs in the back garden of a house in South Norwood

The machine gun, a MAC-10 pistol, was linked to three shootings including a drive-by attack in Beckenham in June last year in which a man in his 20s was wounded in the hand.

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Police found five guns linked to Gilbert, including two revolvers, top, and a MAC-10 machine gun, bottom

The deadly cache, wrapped in plastic in Waller's garden in Warminster Square, also included a Smith and Wesson .44 revolver, a barrel and cylinder for another Smith and Wesson and a magazine for the MAC-10.

Police arrested Waller after discovering the buried weapons on August 7.

They later elsewhere found a pump-action shotgun and a Belgian gate-loading revolver, both linked to Gilbert, a prominent south-London gangster, of Longfield Crescent, Sydenham.

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Waller, left, and Gilbert were jailed on Friday

Detective Inspector Paul Dorey, of the Metropolitan Police's Trident gang crime command, said: "No one entering that garden with its pretty flowers and gnomes would have guessed they were cover for something far more sinister - an array of lethal weapons, including a MAC-10."

Forensic examination linked the guns to Gilbert, who was arrested three months later when police stopped his car in Bournemouth.

Searches of Gilbert's home uncovered a Nike bag, hidden in his bedroom, containing about £4,000 in cash.

Waller admitted three counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life in May and was jailed for eight-and-a-half years at Croydon Crown Court on Friday.

Gilbert was convicted of five of the same charges following a trial at the same court, where he was jailed for 14 years on Friday.

D Insp Dorey said: "I am pleased that sound police work has led today to two dangerous men being jailed and three firearms taken off the streets."

Barry Waller, Tony's brother, was cleared of three counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and three counts of possession of a firearm.