Focusing on an Audi RS2

I SMILED WHEN Matthew Hayward commented that the Audi RS2 Avant was popular with robbers looking to make quick getaways (Buying Guide, issue 178), as I am one of the few police officers who managed to intercept one after a raid.

One night in 2007 I was patrolling West Norfolk in a marked car when a call came in: a witness had seen an explosion inside a Dereham supermarket and a black Ford Escort estate was making off with a cashpoint in the back. Although Dereham was 30 miles away, I headed to the A47 east of King’s Lynn where there was a slim chance they might appear.

Sometime later an oncoming car caught my attention when it delayed dipping its headlights for just too long, often a sign of a driver with reactions dulled by drink or drugs. I tried to work out what make it was and look at the registration, but its main beam came back on and blinded me. I wasn’t sure it was the suspect vehicle, but I was going after it anyway.

I caught up with the black estate car two miles east of King’s Lynn. Rather than an Escort it was an Audi – an A4 or A6, I thought at the time (Audis all look pretty much the same to me), and it was sitting low at the back with multiple occupants. Confirmation that it was our suspects came when they suddenly floored it in a 40mph limit. I lit up my blues and called in the pursuit.

With too much weight aboard and more recklessness than skill, the Audi driver was close to losing it in the bends approaching King’s Lynn. I was familiar with my Focus, a nicely run-in diesel with just 180,000 on the clock, and I kept pace with the suspects while an Armed Response Vehicle headed my way as muchneeded back-up.

Entering the ten-mile straight from King’s Lynn to Sutton Bridge, the heavens opened and the Audi left me standing. My Focus gamely struggled up to 115mph but the wipers weren’t clearing the screen and my right leg was shaking with the physical effort of pressing the pedal into the bulkhead. The concentration needed to drive that fast in those conditions gave me a headache and I was almost relieved when the bad guys vanished into the distance and I could slow down.

The next morning the getaway car was found abandoned and I wasn’t surprised to hear that it was no ordinary Audi 80 Avant, but a stolen RS2.

However, the arm of the law is indeed long. Dubbed ‘The Hole in the Wall Gang,’ they were caught a few months later when they walked into a police surveillance operation. Ultimately, six men pleaded guilty to stealing £960,000 from 55 cashpoints, which is just £2900 for each man per raid. They all did time, with the ringleaders getting nine years, while all their assets were seized, leaving the gang members with nothing.

I’ve got to ask: was their crime spree really worth it? Ironically, the getaway car they abandoned would now sell for twice what they got away with on the night. If they’d been

Octane readers they’d have known that buying an RS2, enjoying it for a decade and selling it on would have been a far more profitable and rewarding experience than using one to evade the local plod. David Mallett, Norfolk