Leader walked free before

HOLE-IN-THE-WALL bombing kingpin Andrew White was found not guilty of conspiring to use explosives to blow up ATMs and steal nearly £800,000 during another trial in 2015.

Before being brought to court, he had been on a “most wanted” list for a string of gas blast attacks on cash machines in Merseyside in 2013 – but fled to the Costa del Sol.

He was arrested on suspicion of blowing up 14 ATMs there but was released after a paperwork mix-up and fled again back to the UK.

A break in the investigation came when police uncovered a “quartermaster’s store” of criminal equipment in a Merseyside lock-up, dubbed “The Batcave”. It contained burglars’ kits of black clothing and masks, a stolen and resprayed Audi, printers for false licence plates and axes, crowbars and gas cylinders.

DNA and fingerprint evidence was uncovered linking several of the conspirators to the plot.

In December 2015, seven of the gang were jailed at Liverpool Crown Court. But White walked free.

Dramatic footage, released after the trial, showed the moment the Merseyside gang used explosives to blow open cash machines.

Just as in the Scottish raids, the bank robbers used gas tanks to blast open 31 ATMs across the North-West and Midlands leaving a trail of destruction.

Their tactics, only seen before in mainland Europe, involved forcing open the ATM with a crowbar and inserting a pipe with a mixture of gases which when ignited, triggered an explosion.

In one attack, the gang accidentally blew up £20,000 and experts said anyone standing within 100 metres of the blasts would have been killed.

KINGPIN HAD FLED TO SPAIN