�Five students who stumbled across a loaded gun in Muswell Hill unwittingly helped police to link four men to an armed raid involving �45,000 worth of cannabis.

The students had been drinking in the pub and were on their way to buy a pizza when they discovered the gun in Colney Hatch Lane.

They called the police after firing it, unaware that it was real. Luckily, the bullet jammed in the barrel.

The weapon had been discarded as Castro Paris, Ejiro Oluku, Andrew Apire and Mehmet Cagali fled police in a car chase through the streets of north London earlier that evening, on November 10 last year.

Wood Green Crown Court heard how a woman had seen three men in balaclavas kicking in the door of a flat in Trinity Road, Bounds Green.

Denis Barry, prosecuting, told the court that the property was being rented by drug dealers and the defendants had targeted it, armed with a gun.

They fled with �45,000 worth of cannabis, electrical equipment, two firearms, a silencer and ammunition.

Cagali, the get-away driver, was waiting for them outside in a rented vehicle.

But Haringey police officers spotted them loading their loot into the car and drove over a grass verge to speak to them.

A 20-minute car chase then ensued in which Cagali drove at speed through a red light and the wrong way round a roundabout. Three of the defendants jumped out of the car on the North Circular but Cagali continued driving and was followed by a police helicopter.

He parked in Connaught Gardens in Edmonton and while he was walking away police surrounded him and he surrendered.

Mr Barry told the court that Oluku had tried to evade police while carrying the bag of cannabis and scaled a fence in the central reservation. He described Oluku as the “prime mover” in the operation, while Paris and Apire assisted in the burglary and knew the group was in possession of a firearm.

In mitigation, Ian Duxbury, representing Oluku, said his client “deeply regretted the situation he finds himself in today”.

David Hughes representing Paris said his client felt “genuine remorse”. Martin James, representing Apire, claimed his client never saw the firearm.

Mrs Lyndsay Hayhow, representing Cagali, said he was a late recruit and the get-away driver.

Sentencing the men, Judge Ian Darling, said: “You are a dangerous team of young criminals who are prepared to do whatever you want to satisfy your ends.”

He ordered Oklu to serve 10 years and Cagali just under four and disqualified him from driving for five years. Apire and Paris were each jailed for seven years.