Jail for 'professional' gang members who tried to blow up Harrogate cash machine

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In one of the raids, the masked gang blew open a hole big enough to allow them inside a petrol station and steal more than £30,000, York Crown Court heard.

Four days after their third and final raid at a Co-op store near Harrogate, the gang were travelling in a stolen Seat Leon towards York when they were spotted by police who gave chase, said prosecutor Howard Shaw.

A high-speed chase ensued in which the thieves sped away at over 100mph, went the wrong way around a roundabout, then drove in the wrong direction down a dual carriageway, before crashing through barriers outside a major shopping centre on the outskirts of York.

They then crashed into a hedge and made a run for it towards the flooded river Ouse. Officers found them hiding in a partially submerged, hollowed-out tree trunk after the force helicopter used heat sensors to locate them just after 3am.

The three gang members were arrested and appeared for sentence at York Crown Court on Thursday after admitting their part in the conspiracy which included several counties.

Frederick Levi Squires, 38, of Swaffham, Norfolk, appeared for sentence via video link alongside his co-conspirator, a man from Doncaster who cannot be named at this stage. Both men admitted conspiracy to cause explosions, conspiring to burgle cash machines and aggravated vehicle-taking between March 3 and 11.

A teenager from Doncaster, who cannot be named for legal reasons, appeared in a separate hearing on the same day after being convicted of conspiracy to cause explosions and conspiracy to burgle cash machines.

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Mr Shaw said the cash-machine raids were “professionally-planned and executed with military-style precision”.

The explosions were caused by “pumping a mixture of oxygen and gases into ATM machines” and using homemade matches to light a fuse.

The gang connected hoses and an electric cable between the oxygen and gas cylinders and a car battery as the power source. One end of the cable, with matchsticks on the tips, would be hooked up to the “business end” where the gang had prised open the mouth of the cash machine.

As part of the meticulously planned operation, the gang drove from one cash machine to the other in a Seat Leon which had been stolen during a burglary in Greater Manchester. The gang travelled from Doncaster to Manchester to pick up the stolen car and fitted the vehicle with false number plates.

They launched their first attack at a post office in Loughborough, near Leicestershire, in the early hours of March 4, when an “unknown fourth man” got out of the vehicle and “with military precision set about attacking the cash machine”. On this occasion, the explosives failed to detonate.

The gang drove off and launched a second raid at a petrol station in Adwick-le-Street, Doncaster, about three hours hours later.

“They loaded the equipment from the car, connected hoses and cabling to items in the boot and into the front of the ATM machine,” said Mr Howard.

“This time they succeeded and blew the back of the machine off.”

The massive explosion opened up a gaping hole in the metal shutter shielding the petrol-station door. The gang, wearing masks and balaclavas, then used a chainsaw and sledgehammer to break in. As they did so, they were spotted by a woman who lived nearby.

“She confronted them (but) one of the gang approached her and threatened her,” said Mr Shaw.

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The woman called police, but the gang made off with £35,130 from inside the service station.

A few days later, the masked mob targeted the Co-op in Starbeck in the early hours of March 6, when they used “exactly the same technique” in an attempt to destroy a cash machine, but this time they were unsuccessful and left empty-handed.

“Witnesses reported seeing several hooded and masked men armed with bats,” said Mr Shaw.

“Four nights later, at about 2am on March 10, the three defendants were travelling in the vehicle near York…driven from the B1224 onto the A1237,” said Mr Shaw.

Police gave chase but the masked driver sped off on the wrong side of the road. Officers laid a stinger on the road and burst two of the tyres, but the Seat carried on with deflated tyres.

Mr Shaw said the driving was so dangerous that police had to abandon the chase.

“A short time later, the vehicle crashed through barriers at the McArthur Glen Designer Outlet… before crashing into a hedge (in the car park),” he added.

Police found the abandoned car packed with explosive devices including oxygen and Acetylene gas cylinders, a large fuel container and electric cables. There was an assortment of break-in tools including a Stihl saw, a pickaxe and a crowbar, as well as three cloned registration plates.

Cell phone technology and CCTV enabled police to trace the thieves’ movements and telephone conversations in the run-up to the raids.

All three defendants had previous convictions. Squires had a rap sheet dating back more than 20 years for offences including burglary, aggravated vehicle-taking, conspiring to steal vehicles and assisting an offender by impeding a murder investigation, as well as lobbing a drugs package into a prison yard.

Mr Shaw said the raids had caused £9,000 of damage to the three cash machines.

John Bottomley, for Squires, said the father-of-five was in the grip of drug addiction at the time of the offences.

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Judge Sean Morris told Squires: “You were part of a gang; some of them have not been caught. This was well-planned, organised crime…and it was conducted with military precision. Everybody knew their role.”

He told the defendants: “You put lives at risk which will not be tolerated.”

Squires was jailed for eight-and-a-half years and given a seven-year driving ban. The youth was given a two-year detention-and-training order.

The other adult defendant’s sentence was postponed.

Mr Morris praised police for their thorough investigation, adding that “every clue was investigated”.

Detective Sergeant Fran Naughton, head of North Yorkshire Police’s Serious Organised Crime Team, said she was pleased with Squires’s “significant” sentence following a “very resourceful and expensive” investigation into a “highly-dangerous, high-risk (criminal operation) (which had) no regard for any members of the public.”