Burka gang jailed for 131 years
ROBBERS who dressed in burkas to disguise themselves as Asian women while carrying out terrifying raids have been jailed.
They used the ruse to get into a jewellers in Manchester and steal more than £100,000 worth of gems. The same method was used during a raid at an Aldi supermarket in Bolton which netted the gang £76,000.
The gang carried out at least 10 raids across Greater Manchester between June 2015 and June 2016.
Now gang members have been jailed for a total of 131 years.
They stole £106,000 worth of jewellery from Punjab Jewellers in Wilmslow Road, Rusholme, on December 9, 2015.
Greater Manchester Police pieced together evidence and results from months of enquiries to identify the organised crime group behind the raids.
The net began closing in when shortly before 1.50pm on Sunday, June 12, 2016, two men got out of a black BMW 5 series and smashed the windows of Royal Jewellers on Wilmslow Road, using a sledgehammer and a street grid.
Detectives established the BMW, which was bearing a false registration plate, was stolen from Lower Cheetham between Friday, June 10 and Saturday, June 11. At around 11.45am on Wednesday June 15, 2016, officers from GMP’s Tactical Firearms Unit stopped a Land Rover on Platt Lane in Moss Side and more of the gang were arrested. Ten men were sentenced for the robberies at Manchester Crown Court.
Leaders Christopher Ryder, 30, of Gypsy Moth Close, Timperley, and Michael Gabriel, 30, of Dunstall Road, Wythenshawe, received 22 and 21 years in jail.
Others jailed were: Nyron Brown, 29, of Warnford Close, Manchester, sentenced to 16 years; Nicholas Fox, 27, of Chippenham Road, Manchester, 18 years; Caine Williams, 26, of Marple Road West, Sale, 10 years.
Sentenced at an earlier hearing and linked to the same gang were Christian Edwards, 31, of Duffield Court, Manchester, who was jailed for 12 years; Paul Smith, 29, of Keswick Avenue, Ashton-under-Lyne, 10 years; Gary Sullivan, 29, of Mossbank Road, Northern Moor, five years; Sean Heyes, 26, of Leaford Avenue, Denton, five years.
A 33-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was jailed for 12 years, eight months.