DNA evidence that snared sledgehammer bank robbers
THE fingertip of a glove worn by McNeil was recovered from the roof of the HSBC bank in Aigburth following a £131,000 raid on September 25, 2009.
Ian and John Stewart were spotted on CCTV escaping in the former’s Nissan Qashqai, bearing false plates, after a £98,700 robbery at Barclays Bank in County Road, Walton on December 22, 2011.
A male worker was put in a headlock when £92,000 was taken from the Lloyds TSB in Longmoor Lane, Aintree, on March 6, 2012. McNeil’s DNA was on a bag left at the scene.
On June 1, 2012, Whittle and McDonald fled empty handed from the NatWest bank in Sefton Road, Litherland. They were seen removing their masks in a nearby subway on CCTV.
The same day the Stewarts hit the NatWest bank in Stockton Heath, Warrington, armed with a sledgehammer, and took £64,000.
Police found a “pink, fishnet stocking mask” worn by John in their abandoned getaway car.
Whittle and McDonald broke into the Lloyds TSB in Woodchurch Road, Birkenhead on June 21, 2012, taking £5,525, where a worker was dragged around by his tie and hit in the back.
Police tracked their getaway car and found the cash and a drawstring bag linked to the pair by DNA.
On August 10, 2012, a gang armed with a crowbar, golf club and sledgehammer struck at the RBS bank in St John’s Road, Waterloo, stealing £119,590.
Ian Stewart dumped a balaclava near their getaway vehicle.
On May 2, 2013, he was one of two men armed with hammers who stole £54,355 from a post office in Sutton, Cheshire.
He was arrested the following day with £15,000 while driving his Nissan Qashqai and jailed for eight years in 2013 after admitting robbery.
DNA in a getaway vehicle linked Lea to a failed raid on the Barclays Bank in Liverpool Road, Maghull, on August 12, 2013.
The bank has since permanently closed.
Five masked men wielding crowbars entered the NatWest Bank in Neston, Cheshire, on November 14, 2013, stealing £29,668. Lea was linked by DNA to their getaway car.
As a worker tried to open a safe, one of the robbers threatened: “Hurry up, I’m going to stab you.”
On December 10, 2014, the same bank was hit again in a £34,087 raid, during which a woman with a heart condition suffered a panic attack.
Ladders used to access the roof bore John Stewart’s DNA and Whittle’s DNA was linked to their getaway vehicle.