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.
