A London drug gang that sold millions of pounds worth of cocaine to bankers and celebrities for almost a decade were today jailed for a total of 36 years.

The quartet was led by a former public schoolboy who despite pleading guilty was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court to 12 years in prison.

Julian de Vere Whiteway-Wilkinson, 32, was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court for his role in the racket, which supplied City workers, celebrities and the music industry with cocaine, Ecstasy and cannabis for up to nine years.

His partner in the £7 million a year business, James Long, 31, whom he met at public school, was jailed for nine years.

Tom Connell, 30, a jazz pianist who went to a prestigious musical academy, received eight years and Milroy Nadarajah, 33, a record producer who owned a studio where Kylie Minogue recorded, received seven years.

Whiteway-Wilkinson, a former musician, and Long met at Blundells school, Devon, and were reunited in their twenties.

Long gave up a career as a merchant banker to join Whiteway-Wilkinson, in supplying drugs from Whiteway-Wilkinson's home in Hoxton, east London. At the time of arrest they were found with £200,000 cash, 15kg (33lb) of cocaine and 511,000 Ecstacy tablets.

Police said that their privileged upbringing led them to believe that they existed "in a bubble" and were beyond detection. The court heard that Whiteway-Wilkinson was a pilot with a half share in a light aircraft, drove a BMW, lived in a £300,000 home and had lavish foreign holidays. But his declared earnings to the Inland Revenue in 2001-02 were only £24,267.

Whiteway-Wilkinson was so sure that he would never be caught that he videoed guests at his parties using cocaine. Among the tapes seized by police were recordings of his cocaine-fuelled sex sessions, which were circulated among friends.

Yesterday the court's public gallery was full of besuited City workers there to wish their friends well before their sentencing today.

Francis Sheridan, for the prosecution, said: "The arrest and convictions of these four have brought to a halt a major and prolific group of cocaine sellers whose supply activities can only properly be described as being massive."

Judge Rodney McKinnon told the gang: "It was the criminal supply of cocaine at a very high level. It is clear from the high purity of the cocaine there must have been a close connection to its importation into the country."

He told Whiteway-Wilkinson that if he had not pleaded guilty he would have been jailed for up to 20 years.

"It is quite apparent that your involvement was at a very high level, you were buying direct from suppliers and wholesaling drugs."

The operation was so large that extensive computer files, which were updated daily, were necessary to keep track of everything. Mr Sheridan said: "The findings from the computer are shocking and the scale is enormous."

The records showed that in a 13-month period from May 15, 2002, the gang spent £7,612,975 on cocaine, sold on at a huge profit, and dealt in 511,740 Ecstasy tablets, 565kg of cannabis resin and 430kg of herbal cannabis.

Mr Sheridan held up a plastic bag containing £200,000 in £20 notes found at a business unit that the gang rented in Brick Lane, east London, and a bag containing 15kg of high-purity cocaine also seized at the unit. Undercover officers witnessed that consignment carried into the unit by Long and Nadarajah on September 5 last year.

After months of undercover surveillance, said Mr Sheridan, police and customs officers swooped on Nadarajah, the gang's supplier, when he delivered the cocaine to their headquarters. As he was arrested, Nadarajah told officers: "I swear on my child's life that I don't know anything."

Long was arrested minutes later in a nearby pub's beer garden.

Nadarajah was said to have turned to dealing drugs when his music career failed. He used his drugs profits to buy a £1.2 million house and a Porsche. When police raided his home, they found envelopes stuffed with money scattered about.

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