Bungling crime gang jailed after leaving trail of clues
THIS dozy crime gang was brought down by a series of screw-ups.
The north Manchester crooks terrorised the public in a crime spree that netted just a few thousand pounds. But the welter of incriminating clues they left behind has led to lengthy jail sentences at Manchester Crown Court.
The gang’s most active member, Steven Kelly, 25, who has been jailed for 12 years, always wore the same stripy coat when he committed robberies, which meant he was easy to identify on CCTV.
In August, Kelly left £1,400 of heroin in a VW Golf, but then got stabbed by another criminal minutes later.
Police were already suspicious about the car because he had driven past an officer in it covering his face about an hour before he was attacked. Then, when he was in hospital recovering, officers found the Golf, got the key off him and found the drugs on open view in the central console.
In October, Kelly and his pal Gino Williams, 28, burgled a man’s Moston home and threatened him with knives.
But the registration number of the Honda they used was photographed by witnesses as they drove off – and while they tried and failed to use the cards in an off-licence, the vehicle was recovered from the street outside.
Inside it were found gloves, knives, and their fingerprints.
Days later another member of the gang, Niall Tallon, 23, dumped his car following a police chase – leaving £200 of crack cocaine in it and a phone with texts about drugs, guns, and bullets.
Then, on November 3, Kelly, Williams and Tallon raided Co-op in Middleton.
But they left behind a knife Kelly broke by slamming on the counter, and the sledgehammer Williams used to attack the cash machine.
They had tried to force a worker to open the safe, but he escaped through a fire exit.
Witnesses took down the licence plates of their getaway motorbikes, which were traced to a council estate. As police arrived the men ran off – leaving behind their helmets and the key to the Ford Ka they had used in the robbery of Spar in Blackley days earlier.
Meanwhile, Tallon got changed at the Embassy Club in Harpurhey in a bid to avoid detection.
But he left the clothes he had worn in the robbery behind in the toilets.
Another member of the gang, Macauley Peacock, 22, would go on to burgle a woman’s home in West Yorkshire and steal her VW Golf before he and Kelly blackmailed her into paying £500, before demanding another £1,000, for its return.
She was told her home would be petrol-bombed and her face would be ‘cut’ if she didn’t comply.
But again the gang dropped themselves in it – leaving the car parked on Kelly’s street, where Matthew Brogan and Macauley Peacock were when it was seized by police. Peacock even had the key fob in his hand at the time.
Sentencing, Judge Martin Walsh said the offences were ‘terrifying’ for victims and ‘cry out for significant custodial sentences.’
Kelly, of Sighthill Walk, Harpurhey, admitted charges including aggravated burglary, theft, robbery, possessing an offensive weapon, blackmail, and was found guilty of possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply. He was jailed for 12 years.
Tallon, of Symond Road, Harpurhey, was jailed for seven years after admitting theft, robbery, possessing offensive weapons and class A drugs.
Williams, of Rochdale Road, Harpurhey admitted aggravated burglary, robbery and possession of an offensive weapon and was jailed for 11 years.
Brogan, 21, of Brewster Street, Harpurhey, was jailed for four-anda-half years after admitting robbery, possession with intent to supply Class A drugs and breach of a suspended sentence.
Peacock, 22, of Worthington Street, Moston, admitted blackmail, theft and breach of bail and got three years and two months. FIVE THUGS LOCKED UP FOR TERRIFYING THEIR VICTIMS IN SERIES OF ROBBERIES