Hotel staff feared
Witnessesto terrifying robbery praisedfor theirbravery
action CCTV images showed the raid in Shortly after coming back to Scotland, Fleming hooked up with Richardson and a third man before they mounted their ruthless raid on the Perthshire hotel.
Masked and armed, their robbery was carried out exactly to plan, with a swift entry and exit, and the use of chemicals rendered their getaway car useless to forensics.
But it was the Range Rover used by the robbers and left ablaze in Glasgow which ultimately led to their downfall.
PC Barry Calder, 33, who was called to the burned-out car, discovered via the police database that the same vehicle had been used at Gleneagles. Robbery detectives then showed PC Calder a CCTV image taken at the hotel on June 12 of a person they believed to be connected to the raid.
The officer told the court he recognised it as Fleming, adding that he had spoken to the man at his mum’s house on June 13 last year.
The reasons for the conversation were never disclosed to jurors.
Detectives then checked Fleming’s mobile phone records and found his device had connected to phone masts close to Gleneagles at the time of the robbery.
The detectives also found that Fleming had been in touch with Richardson and another man. Officers then studied tens of thousands of hours worth of CCTV footage which provided them with evidence that Richardson and Fleming were the men they were looking for.
Police concluded that Fleming was the man who threatened Mr Hutchison and Mr Wishart with the firearm.
They arrested Richardson and Fleming, who denied having anything to do with the robbery although pleaded guilty to two housebreakings in St Andrew’s.
He said that at the time of the raid, he was buying drugs in Glasgow to sell back to users in London.
Fleming also claimed that on the day of the robbery, he didn’t have his mobile phone as he had given it to somebody else. He told his advocate Brian McConnachie QC the first time he knew about the heist was when he was arrested. When asked