A career criminal who threatened Brent police officers with an imitation machine gun weeks after stealing £2million of jewellery from the family of a billionaire businessman has been jailed.

Robert Lewis was sentenced to 21 years for robbery, burglary, firearm offences and dangerous driving at Harrow Crown Court yesterday.

The court heard how Lewis confronted 37-year-old Magda Palos, the wife of Sir Philip Green’s stepson Brett Palos, with garden shears at their home in St John’s Wood at 7.40am on December 10.

He emptied drawers containing high value jewellery and ordered her to remove all her valuables as she stepped out of the shower before taking her phone and fleeing the property.

Police officers seeking to arrest Lewis for burglary, saw him sitting outside a restaurant in High Street, Harlesden,in a grey Mercedes C160 coupe on December 29.

When a uniformed officer confronted him he mounted the pavement and raced off. He was then spotted driving at high speed on the wrong side of Acton Lane by two plain clothes officers who pursued him until the 41-year-old smashed into a black Tesla car coming off the A40. He jumped out of the Mercedes, vaulted over the bonnet of the officers’ car and started to run off armed with what looked like a machine gun.

The officers chased him but Lewis turned on the sergeant and pointed the gun at him. A Met spokesman said: “The officer stopped and looked away, thinking he was about to die and expecting to hear gunshots.”

But Lewis then turned the gun on another officer who looked away too before Lewis escaped on foot across the A40.

A manhunt led to his arrest on January 13. Lewis, of no fixed abode, was picked out of an ID parade. His DNA was found on the damaged window.

Lewis was sentenced to 18 years for robbery with three years on licence. He was also sentenced to eight years for burglary and five years for possession of an imitation firearm to run concurrently. He was also disqualified from driving for three years.

He must serve at least 12 years of his sentence.

Lewis, with a string of previous burglary convictions, refused to give evidence at trial or answer questions when interviewed.