Gang’s ‘violent threat in £2.7m raid of cider heir’
ROBBERS threatened to pour bleach over a woman during a “highly sophisticated” £2.7million raid at the home of a Bulmer’s cider heir, a court heard yesterday.
Deborah Branjum was house-sitting at the home of Esmond and Susan Bulmer when the raiders burst in and tied her to a banister, it was alleged.
The gang grabbed antique silverware and valuable paintings from the walls of the mansion near Bruton, Somerset, the jury was told.
They loaded the haul into Mr Bulmer’s Mercedes along with a safe containing around £1million in jewellery, Bristol Crown Court heard.
Silverware and jewellery were sold but the 15 paintings, including pre-Raphaelite works, were stored in a Birmingham garage “due to their notoriety”, said Stephen Mooney, prosecuting.
All the paintings have been recovered except a work by Sir John Lavery called Afterglow, Taplow, Mr Mooney said. A total of 11 men are on trial charged with various offences linked to the raid in March, 2009.
Mr Mooney said the heist was a “highly sophisticated criminal operation” in which each defendant played individual roles but all benefited from each other’s criminality.
Liam Judge, 41, Matthew Evans, 40, both of Tuffley, Gloucestershire, and Skinder Ali, 38, of no fixed address, deny conspiracy to rob.
Thomas Lynch, 42, of Birmingham, Mark Regan, 45, of no fixed address, Jonathan Rees, 62, of Weybridge, Surrey, David Price, 52, of no fixed address, Ike Obiamiwe, 55, of Sutton, south London, Donald Maliska, 63, of Dartford, Kent, and Ali deny assisting in the realisation of stolen property.
Nigel Blackburn, 60, of Birmingham, and Azhar Ali, 64, of Solihull, West Mids, deny money laundering.
The trial continues.