Gun-toting gang jailed for terrifying home raid

Intruders terrorised and robbed couple of £2,500 and other valuables

Members of a gun-toting masked gang who smashed their way into a Fife flat before holding up its occupants and making off with thousands of pounds were jailed yesterday.

The intruders, who were also wielding a crowbar and machete, were sentenced to a total of 21 years behind bars. The High Court in Edinburgh heard the raid took place in a property on Viceroy Street in Kirkcaldy.

Sentencing, a judge told the four gang members: “This was a premeditated and carefully planned enterprise.

“You armed yourselves with weapons, some potentially lethal,” added the judge.

The gang made off with £2,500 in cash along with a range of other valuables during the terrifying raid in January 2015.

An armed gang who staged a terrifying gunpoint raid after forcing their way into a flat were jailed for a total of 21 years yesterday.

The balaclava clad intruders carried a handgun, a crowbar and a machete as they burst into the home of Dwayne Kinner who was with his cousin Nicholas Roberts, known as Ollie .

The High Court in Edinburgh heard that the victims believed they were going to be shot after the gun was pointed at their heads and another robber threatened he was going to cut their fingers off.

James Mackie, 30, Gordon Ellis, 24, Derek Finlay, 31, and Scott Smith, 23, made off with a haul of £2,500 and other valuables following the robbery at the flat on Viceroy Street, Kirkcaldy, in January 2015.

A judge told the robbers: “You have pled guilty to an extremely serious offence. In a premeditated and carefully planned enterprise, with a chosen victim, you armed yourself with weapons, some potentially lethal.”

Michael O’Grady QC said: “The idea that anyone should suffer such terror in their own home is utterly beyond the pale.”

The judge told Mackie and Finlay, who both have lengthy criminal records, that it was clear that they played the major role in the offence and jailed each of them for six and a half years.

He sentenced Ellis and Smith to four years imprisonment each and said: “It is clear your roles in the attack were lesser ones.”

Among the items taken in the raid was a mobile phone on which Mr Kinner had installed a tracking app. This traced the phone to a house on Stewart Street in Dysart.

When officers arrived, Finlay said: “There’s no a firearm but I’ve got a phone.” They also recovered computers, games, a sound bar and £710.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard that the gun, an air pistol, was later found behind a kickboard in a kitchen at a house in Glenrothes which Finlay had previously had access to.

The court heard that Mr Kinner and Mr Roberts heard the door being kicked in shortly before midnight on January 7.

Mr Roberts went into the hall and was confronted by the four dark clad, masked men. Finlay was holding the gun and said: “Where’s the money?” The flat was then ransacked. Mackie, of Denfield Place, Kirkcaldy; Ellis, of Mains Road, Cardenden; Finlay, a prisoner, and Smith of Kirkburn Drive, Cardenden, all earlier pled guilty to assaulting and robbing the victims.