A gang who stole hundreds of thousands of pounds from ATMs across the country rammed a police car with two female officers in it during their escape bid.
Arthur Gaskin, Lee Leatherbarrow, Crimea Price, and John Price, appeared at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday to be sentenced for 19 burglaries in supermarkets and thefts from ATM machines across the country. They were caught after an investigation by Cheshire Police named Operation Hades, in summer last year, looking into a string of night-time burglaries of commercial premises, from which ATM machines inside would be broken into and the contents stolen.
Henry Riding, prosecuting, told the court that during each robbery, the gang fastened a “long heavy duty strap” to a tow bar attached to a stolen Ford Transit van, and a hook at the other end was “connected to the opening in the internal door to the ATM machine”. The van was then driven off at high speed, ripping off the door to the ATM and allowing its contents to be stolen.
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High-speed vehicles such as a stolen Volkswagen Type R, a BMW M4, and BMW M440i, were also used in the conspiracy as they were “easily able to outrun most police vehicles” when pursued. Mr Riding detailed that on March 23 last year, at the Co-Op in Ermine Street, Lincolnshire at around 4.15am, a witness Lindsey Codd heard the shop alarm and the sound of an angle grinder, alerting her that a raid was taking place.
She called police, and was asked by the operator for the licence plates of the cars involved, so she “bravely” went out in her car to view them. As she drove past, one of the offenders threw a brick at her car, but despite this, she was able to get the information and give it to officers.
Only Leatherbarrow has admitted to being involved in this incident. On April 15 the same year, at the Nisa on Longshaw Street, Warrington, two female police officers attended the scene after an emergency call. They witnessed a male run from the store and enter the stolen van, before he turned the headlights on full beam.
He drove the vehicle at full speed at the police car, ramming into the driver's door, causing it to be shunted around a car's length. The male then ran to the rear of the store, before a Volkswagen Golf R used as the getaway vehicle was also driven at speed at the police car.
However, the car swerved at the last minute, but a rear passenger then leant out and threw a brick at the officers, who at first “believed they had been shot at”. Similarly, on May 11, at the Co-op on Commercial Road, Huddersfield, an employee named Toni Burrows was working a night shift, when she saw a male wearing all black enter, holding a crow bar.
She initially told him to “f**k off” but said soon after two other males entered, and the man holding the crow bar “just stared at her”. In her statement, read by the prosecution, she said: “They had continued to carry on the job they intended to carry out even though I was actively watching them”.
By July 7, the four men were under surveillance by Cheshire police, and all defendants except for Leatherbarrow became involved in a police pursuit after a robbery at the Co-op on Shortheath Road, Derbyshire. At around 3.45am during the chase, a bottle containing liquid was thrown at the police car behind, which hit the windscreen.
A fire extinguisher, bricks and rocks were also thrown at the pursuing police vehicle, but thankfully did not hit it. The four men pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary and Crimea Price also pleaded guilty to one count of driving while disqualified.
In sentencing, Judge Aubrey said: “You were operating as a gang and targeting in the main, stores which had inside the premises, an ATM machine, which are the lifeblood for many and in particular customers who used those stores.
“It was an extremely sophisticated operation and required meticulous preparation. “The premises would first be targeted, having first been identified by way of reconnaissance, and then put in place was a carefully planned operation.”
He said there was “a military precision” in how they committed the crimes, and said the court did not accept there was any genuine remorse felt. Crimea Price, of The Pines, Newton-Le-Willows, was sentenced to eight years imprisonment, Gaskin, of no fixed abode, and Leatherbarrow, of Lascelles Street, St Helens, were both sentenced to 7 and a half years, and John Price, Newport Street, Stoke, was sentenced to 6 years.
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