For members of a popular YouTube prank account called Trollstation, wearing pantyhose on their faces and running through London’s National Portrait Gallery screaming “Get the paintings!” probably seemed like a good idea at the time.

But on Monday, a court handed down jail sentences to four men accused of behaving in a way that incited fear and provoked violence in the fake gallery heist and for a staged kidnapping at another museum. (Trollstation already has one member serving time for a separate bombing hoax.) Daniel Jarvis, 27, received the longest jail sentence, and will serve a total of seven months for both episodes.

“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,” Robert Short, a prosecutor, said in a statement.

Amina Maz, a production manager for Trollstation, said in an email on Wednesday that the sentencing was too harsh.

“A suspended sentence or community service would have acted as a deterrent,” she wrote.

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