Four men who committed 19 burglaries targeting ATMs in supermarkets stole hundreds of thousands of pounds, a court has heard.
Arthur Gaskin, 35, of no fixed abode, Lee Leatherbarrow, 33, of Lascelles Street, St Helens, Crimea Price, 32, of The Pines, Newton-Le-Willows, and John Price, 27, of Newport Street, Stoke, appeared at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday to be sentenced for 19 burglaries in supermarkets and thefts from ATM machines across the country. Crimea Price and Gaskin admitted to 13 burglaries, John Price admitted four and Leatherbarrow admitted nine.
Henry Riding, prosecuting, detailed that Cheshire Police opened an investigation, dubbed Operation Hades, into a string of night-time burglaries of commercial premises, from which ATM machines inside would be broken into and the contents stolen. He said the “highly organised” group used stolen Ford Transit vans to assist in the thefts and high speed vehicles such as a stolen Volkswagen Type R, a BMW M4, and BMW M440i, as they were “easily able to outrun most police vehicles” when pursued.
