Thugs are jailed after terrifying armed raid spree
THREE thugs have been jailed for more than 40 years after carrying out a string of ‘highly sophisticated’ armed robberies - including a terrifying raid on a home in Littleborough.
Nial Kiernan, Arran Crossan and Anthony Morrison were convicted following three separate robberies in which victims were threatened with crowbars, axes and machetes.
In the second of the incidents, in June 2016, three men broke into a house on Stubley Mill Road, Littleborough, while a man and a woman slept upstairs.
When the man living in the house came down and confronted them, one of the men – who was armed with a machete – threatened him and forced him to hand over the keys to a BMW 330 and an Audi S3 before leaving.
In the first incident, two men posed as maintenance staff when they robbed a bank in Oldham.
Members of staff were closing the bank on Middleton Road, while two workmen were carrying out maintenance in the boiler room.
One of the men went to get some equipment from his van when he noticed two men dressed in highvisibility jackets seemingly carrying out further maintenance work outside.
As he got closer to them, he realised that they were both wearing balaclavas and were armed with an axe and a crowbar.
They grabbed the man and forced him to the ground before then demanding he get them into the bank.
After leading them into the boiler room where he had been working – and attempting to explain he had no access to the main bank – the offenders threatened him and his colleague before making them stay put while they