Cash-in-transit robbers jailed for £60k raids spree
MACHETE THUGS LOCKED UP FOR 20 YEARS AFTER BEING CAUGHT IN POLICE STAKE-OUT
ARMED robbers Ryan Grogan and Russell Frankland thought they were on a winning run.
They had already bagged £60,000 ambushing two cash-in-transit vans, slashing a guard with a machete in the process. But greed and a swaggering sense that they were untouchable spurred them on to another job.
Planning their third strike they parked up outside a Tesco store in Whitworth and waited for another van carrying money for a cash machine to arrive.
But they were being watched – by undercover officers from GMP’s Serious and Organised Crime Group.
They had been under surveillance for months. Phone data and the tracking of the pair’s cars had already produced a dossier of evidence.
As they sat in a car, believing another cash delivery was due, plain clothes and armed officers moved in and arrested them. Now both are starting 20-year jail sentences.
Grogan, 42, of Hilltop Drive, Rochdale, and Frankland, 43, of Gladstone Street, Todmorden, Lancashire, were found guilty of conspiracy to commit robbery by a jury at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court.
The pair were found guilty of two robberies – they targeted Loomis cash transit vans as they delivered money to ATMs in Todmorden and Rochdale.
On Saturday, February 17 they attacked a van as it arrived at the One Stop Shop in Todmorden. The driver of the van had been assaulted with a metal bar and the ATM box he was carrying was stolen. He saw the offender make off in a Ford Ka. They escaped with £20,000.
Six weeks later, on March 31, they struck at Tesco on Silk Street in Rochdale. The same driver who was robbed in Todmorden was attacked and robbed again and slashed with a machete before the box he was carrying was stolen, containing £40,000.
The case against the pair was presented by the prosecution on the basis that they were planning another robbery, on May 12 this year. They were seen in Whitworth near the Tesco store on May 10 and 12.
They were arrested in a parked up car in Whitworth on May 12.
A proceeds of crime hearing will take place at a future date to recover their criminal assets.
Detective Constable Matthew Whittaker, from GMP’s Serious and Organised Crime Group, said: “These are fantastic sentences handed to two people who targeted what they thought was an easy win.
“They planned their attacks, knowing exactly when and where the vans would be and struck as the drivers were at their most vulnerable.
“They profited in the short term for their thefts but for the foreseeable future they will be sat behind bars wondering was it all worth it?
“I hope they now understand that crime really does not pay.”