‘Italian Job’ ATM gang convicted of Angus raid

Thieves caught in dramatic showdown at fast food drive-thru

A gang of “Italian Job” ATM thieves caught in a dramatic Angus fast food drive-thru showdown last year have been convicted of heists across the UK, including another in Perth.

The seven-strong outfit now face lengthy jail terms when they are sentenced for a total of 13 raids around Britain after being found guilty following a trial at Liverpool Crown Court. Their elaborate plan involved using high-powered cars to make off from the scene, before driving up ramps into a stolen articulated lorry – equipped with hammocks for the crooks and industrial cutting gear.

The gang netted more than £100,000 in Scotland alone before being cornered in the car park of the McDonald’s restaurant in Arbroath by armed police last February, just hours after ripping an ATM from the front of a Co-op shop in Carnoustie.

A sharp-eyed off-duty police officer provided the vital information that led to the swoop.

Yesterday’s conviction of the gang marked the successful conclusion of an investigation that began in 2015 and took in almost 20 police force areas across the country.

A ruthless gang of ATM thieves who netted huge sums in a series of ‘Italian Job’ raids around the UK, including Angus and Perth, are facing lengthy jail terms after being convicted at Liverpool Crown Court.

The raiders blew up and ripped ATM machines from premises including Co-op stores in Perth and Carnoustie in a series of heists stretching back many months before five of them were cornered in a dramatic showdown with armed police at the McDonald’s drivethru in Arbroath in February last year.

Desperate to evade justice, they tried to ram a police vehicle with a stolen Mercedes, before officers fired tyredeflating rounds at the car.

Detectives found stolen notes from the Carnoustie cash machine littering the footwell of the prestige vehicle.

For some time police had been on the trail of the gang, who moved from using a mobile home in their efforts to avoid detection to an elaborate scheme likened to hit-movie the Italian Job, in which they drove high-performance Audi RS and Mercedes AMG machines up ramps into a stolen lorry, complete with hammocks for the crooks to sleep in and industrial cutting gear.

Yesterday, Andrew White, Michael Galea, Nanu Miah, Anthony White and Gary Carey were found guilty after a four-month-long trial of a total of 13 raids around the UK. Carl Cavanagh and Anthony Conroy pleaded guilty before the trial and all will be sentenced later this month.

In Scotland alone, they netted more than £100,000 from the 2016 Courier Country ATM attacks and a further two in the north east the previous year.

Operation Titan, which brought the gang to justice, involved almost 20 force areas across Britain.

Detective Superintendent Alex Dowall said: “We owe a huge thanks to the public for their assistance in this major inquiry.”

Clockwise from top left: the aftermath of the raiders’ capture at Arbroath’s McDonald’s drive-thru in February last year; the gang’s stolen lorry decked out with hammocks; and an explosive CCTV image of one of the raids.