The thieves – described as professional criminals – raided supermarkets 55 times, repeatedly targeting Tesco stores, stealing £640,000 from its branches because they were so easy to break into.

But as well as Tesco stores in Wellingborough and Kettering, they also broke into cashpoint machines at Morrisons in Corby and Waitrose in Rushden.

Four members of the gang were given lengthy prison terms in January this year after admitting conspiracy to burgle.

But at Lincoln Crown Court yesterday, they were each ordered to pay £150,000 within six months or face a further consecutive jail-term of two years and three months after the court heard that they benefited by £961,150 from their crimes..

Gordon Aspden, prosecuting, told the confiscation hearing at Lincoln Crown Court: "This was a professional crime on a grand scale.

"It was a massive investigation, which resulted in the conviction of four professional criminals and two of their accomplices."

The gang struck across the Midlands and started using oxyacetylene torches after Tesco had put in additional security measures because they had been raided so often.

The offences took place between April 2006 and October 2007, when they were finally caught.

In January, Geoffrey Manning, 34, of Seadyke Bank, Wisbech St Mary, and John Smith, 35, of Edgerley Drain Road, Peterborough, were jailed for nine years.

Smith's cousin, Wesley Smith, 26, of Palmers Road, Peterborough, and Steven Upton, 28, of Seadyke Road, Wisbech St Mary, were given the same term.

Two other men who were involved on the fringes of the gang were jailed for 15 months at the original hearing after admitting conspiracy to steal.

They were Jason Bingley, 30, of East Water Crescent, Peterborough, and 36-year-old Ross Drew, of Godwit Crescent, Whittlesey.

Bingley, who has no assets, was ordered to pay a nominal £1 after benefiting by £16,800 from his crimes.

Drew, who benefited by £5,500 pounds, was ordered to hand over £556, as well as a Subaru Impreza car used in some of the raids.

Praising the work of police who snared the gang, Recorder William Harbage QC approved an agreed settlement under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

He said: "I find that the defendants all had a criminal lifestyle. There were many burglaries committed over an extended period of time."