Four members of Trollstation, a YouTube channel which carries out controversial stunts, have been jailed for staging a fake robbery on the National Portrait Gallery, and a fake kidnapping.

27 year-old Daniel Jarvis, 23 year-old Helder Gomes, 20 year-old Endrit Ferizolli, and 29 year-old Ebenezer Mensah were sentenced yesterday (Monday 16th May) at the City of London Magistrate's Court. All four admitted two counts of using 'threatening or abusive words', and 'behaviour causing fear of unlawful violence'. Javis was sentenced to 20 weeks in prison, Mensah and Gomes will each spend 18 weeks in jail, and Ferizolli has been given a 16 week sentence.

The stunts, which were filmed for the YouTube channel but not released, were described by the court as "terrifying".

On the 5th July 2015 the group smuggled paintings into the Portrait Gallery in bin bags and then pretended they were stealing high-value artworks. One of the members used a speaker system to create an alarm sound. The resultant chaos saw the public fleeing the venue, with one woman reportedly passing out. Later that day, the pranksters pulled a similar prank at the Tate Britain gallery, involving an additional fake kidnap element. The men were arrested later that day.

Robert Short from the Crown Prosecution Service says: "The hoaxes may have seemed harmless to them, but they caused genuine distress to a number of members of the public, who should be able to go about their daily business without being put in fear in this way."

He added: "We hope these convictions send a strong message that unlawful activities such as these will not be tolerated in London."

This is not the first time Trollstation, which has over 720,000 subscribers, has been in trouble with the law. A number of their videos show the police stepping in to investigate their stunts, and in March founder Danh Van Le was sentenced to 24 weeks in prison for a fake robbery stunt and a bomb hoax.

A video has been posted on Trollstation today which includes footage of the art heist stunt and sees other members of the group confirming they will continue to film new stunts for the channel.

Talking about the sentencing, one member says in the video: "I think we might have overstepped the line", and another says "I think the Met Police have worked with the CPS to kind of make an example of Trollstation."

Recent Trollstation pranks include a fake police officer smoking drugs in public:

And a fake traffic warden clamping vans: