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Wirral gang used power tools to steal cash machines | Wirral gang used power tools to steal cash machines |
(about 1 hour later) | |
Gang members who stole cash machines and a safe netting more than £120,000, have been jailed. | Gang members who stole cash machines and a safe netting more than £120,000, have been jailed. |
All seven had admitted conspiracy to steal and were sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court. | All seven had admitted conspiracy to steal and were sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court. |
Judge Thomas Teague QC said the gang had viewed the offences as "a way to get easy money." | Judge Thomas Teague QC said the gang had viewed the offences as "a way to get easy money." |
They used power tools in 10 raids, which took place in Wirral, Derbyshire, Worcestershire, north Wales and Stafford. | |
Their six-month long stealing spree, ending in February last year, involved deactivating alarm sensors during the day and returning at night with angle grinders to break into cash machines. | |
Unsuccessful raid | Unsuccessful raid |
Terence Doughty, 34, of Deakin Street, Birkenhead and Anthony Edwards Sutton, 32, of Oakwood Park, Birkenhead, proprietor of Wirral Tyres, were each jailed for four years. | Terence Doughty, 34, of Deakin Street, Birkenhead and Anthony Edwards Sutton, 32, of Oakwood Park, Birkenhead, proprietor of Wirral Tyres, were each jailed for four years. |
Craig Brennan, 28, of Hampton Chase, Prenton, who took part in six raids, received three and a half years. Les McStein, 30, of Oxford Road, Wallasey, who was involved in five, was jailed for three years. | |
Kevin O'Loughlin, 36, of Canterbury Road, Wallasey, participated in four raids. | |
He is currently serving a prison sentence for similar raids and Judge Teague sentenced him to 21 months, to run consecutively with his current term. | |
Gary Carey, 36, of Gorseburn Road, Tuebrook, Liverpool, who met the gang while in prison, was jailed for three years nine months, | Gary Carey, 36, of Gorseburn Road, Tuebrook, Liverpool, who met the gang while in prison, was jailed for three years nine months, |
Brennan's brother, Kevin Brennan, 29, of Falklands Street, Birkenhead, who acted as a getaway driver after an unsuccessful raid at the Co-operative store in Noctorum Avenue, Prenton, on February 16, was sentenced to eight months in jail. | |
'Guiding minds' | 'Guiding minds' |
The court heard the largest sum taken was £103,000, seized by the gang in two raids at Tesco Express in Evesham, Worcestershire, in October 2011. | |
The following January, Doughty, one of the two "guiding minds", and Brennan broke into the Arriva Bus depot in Rhyl, stealing the cash vault and cash box with £9,500 and causing almost £20,000 damage. | |
A month later, in a third successful raid, they targeted a convenience store in Preston, where Doughty, fellow ringleader Edwards-Sutton, Brennan, McStein and Carey, used industrial power saws to get in through the roof, to steal just under £8,000 from the cash machine. | |
Carey also admitted stealing £13,000 from a cash machine at a newsagents in Bristol in March 2011. | |
The seven men were all arrested in May last year. | The seven men were all arrested in May last year. |
They were brought to justice following an intensive police operation, codenamed Barnadino 2. |