Gang snatched £700k in raids on cashpoints

FIVE MEN CONVICTED AFTER STRIKING NINE TIMES USING STOLEN CARS

- JASBIR AUTHI

A BLACK Country gang have been convicted of using stolen cars to raid cashpoints at banks and shops across the country.

The men netted £700,000 after striking nine times within a year, even boasting at one point that police had no ‘concrete evidence’ against them.

Daniel Hickenbottom, Noel Reilly, Craig Howell, Simon Pagett and Oliver Matthews were eventually snared after police officer spotted the gang's stolen Audi being transported on a low loader back to the Midlands.

To aid their crime spree, the masked men used specialist equipment including angle grinders and the jaws of life, which are usually deployed by firefighters to rescue people trapped in cars.

They fixed fake number plates to stolen high-performance cars to use in their getaways.

They even used a reinforced flatbed truck to smash their way into the businesses in areas including West Mercia, Leicestershire, Avon and Somerset, Bedfordshire, Greater Manchester, Cumbria, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and Staffordshire.