Gang ordered to repay £200k after ATM raids
AN organised crime gang which carried out a spree of cash machine raids in the Midlands including targeting hospitals, post office and arts venue have been ordered to pay back their ill-gotten gains.
The Birmingham ringleader, Craig Matthews, will see his jail time rise by almost a quarter if he and his colleagues do not return more than £200,000 after a series of raids from March 2018 to January 2019.
The gang-of-five tied straps around freestanding ATMs before ripping them out using vehicles on cloned plates. The crooks carried out 11 raids or attempted burglaries including at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, Warwick Hospital, Trent Valley Post Office in Lichfield and Rugby Train Station.
The raids included using a cutting equipment to break into Spar in Tamworth before ripping out the cash machine on March 18, 2018.
They also cut bollards to get into Birmingham’s Cannon Hill Park, where they dragged a cash machine from the Midlands Arts Centre on September 24 2018.
Days later they destroyed the inside of a Post Office in Lichfield on September 29, putting tape on CCTV cameras and dragging a cash machine out.
While on October 17 that year wearing masks the brazen gang walked into Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth hospital before loading an ATM onto a trolley and walking out, past members of the public.
And security guards had to dodge out of the way of the gang’s van as they disturbed them at a Birmingham’s Bookers cash-and-carry on January 27, 2019.
The gang’s downfall began when they were forced to abandon a Transit van they were using as a getaway vehicle, following a pursuit.
Forensic tests on that, and a fingerprints left on a trolley they had dumped at one crime scene, helped police identify suspects.
Police used CCTV, forensics and phone analysis to help us catch them and they were jailed in October 2019 after admitting conspiracy to commit burglaries.
Then financial investigators at the Regional Economic Crime Unit (RECU) then started the process of tracing and recovering the cash. Which has led to confiscation orders being secured under the Proceeds of Crime Act at Birmingham Crown Court last week against four of the five convicted. Police said: “We’re in the process of bringing a similar case against the fifth man.”
Now the gang have three months to pay back the cash or have their jail terms increased.
Ringleader Matthews, aged 44 of Benmore Avenue, off Bristol Road, Edgbaston, must pay almost £160,000; otherwise his eight year and seven month sentence will be increased by a year and nine months.
Charlie Ward, 29, of Pepys Corner,
Tile Hill, Coventry, must pay £21,000 or his five year sentence is increased by a year.
Shane Stajsavlijevic, 38, of Hermes Crescent, Henley Green, Coventry, must pay just over £17,500 or his seven years and two months prison terms increases by 10 months.
Kenneth Bourne, 41, of Nuneaton Road, Fillongley, must pay £8,300 or his six year sentence increases by six months.
David Bradley, of Wappenbury Road, Wood End, Coventry, who was 28 when he was jailed was given then given a five-year sentence.
Read more : Speeding driver jailed after friend killed in head-on crash with taxi
A spokesman for West Midlands Police said: “We have specialist staff within our RECU who work on detailed and complex investigation to prove cash or property are linked to criminal activity.
“We continually seek to ensure crime doesn’t pay.”