Three men from Lelystad have been jailed for stealing a number of valuable Pokémon cards in a robbery at a private home in Kampen.

Two of the gang posed as potential buyers and turned up to view the cards when their owner put them up for sale. But instead of paying, they locked their victim in a cupboard while they made off with the cards, said to have a total value of €48,000.

The court in Zwolle found 29-year-old Sjagalio K and Bart G guilty of stealing the cards, based on fingerprint evidence on the door to the cupboard. Fahad Al-A who masterminded the theft and sold the cards was also sentenced to 2.5 years in jail.

Al-A claimed to have been driving around at the time of robbery but the court said they considered this to be unlikely as he had neither car nor driving licence.

The stolen cards eventually turned up in Paris where they were being traded in the French market, police said last year, after an appeal on a television crime show.