1:30pm Monday 22nd March 2010
By Kevin Bradford
A GANG who attempted a smash and grab raid on a cash machine at a bank in Temple Fortune have been jailed.
The three men had been held by police in connection with a series of burglaries, one of which included ripping an ATM from the front of Barclays Bank, in Finchley Road, last July.
Darren Rutter, 32, from Chigwell, Paul Thompson, 40, from Shepherds Bush, and 38-year-old Jason Perry, from Leytonstone, appeared at Wood Green Crown court on Friday having pleaded guilty to a total of 13 burglary offences that were committed across London, Sussex, Suffolk, Essex and Kent.
They were handed 14 years imprisonment between them for the burglary spree, which lasted from October 2008 to July last year.
Officers from Finchley Flying Squad arrested the men after they had used a seven-and-a-half tonne truck, fitted with a lifting arm, to pull the cash machine out of the window of the bank at 3am, on July 25.
When it was secured to the vehicle, Thompson drove off and was chased by officers along the A406 for ten and a half miles, during which time he failed to pull over and rammed the truck into pursuing police cars.
He was only stopped when he turned down a dead-end road, although officers said he then reversed at speed into the police cars and put up a “violent struggle” before eventually being detained.
Thompson's fellow gang members, Perry and Rutter, were arrested in a separate white van that was parked close to the Barclays Bank.
Both men were also involved in a violent struggle prior to their arrest, police said, adding that two officers required hospital treatment and six police vehicles were damaged.
Detective Inspector David Malcolm, of the Finchley Flying Squad, said: "At the time of their arrests, Rutter, Thompson and Perry had absolutely no regard for anyone's safety.
“I would like to acknowledge the forward thinking and bravery of the officers at the Finchley Flying Squad, two of whom were injured during the course of the arrest and thank them for keeping disruption to members of the public to a minimum."
Detectives revelled later that the gang had been the subject of an on running covert surveillance operation codenamed Chillingwood.
Investigations uncovered a warehouse containing a snake-eye camera, a laser cutter, heavy-duty jacks and crow-bars used to carry out the burglaries. They also found evidence the truck used in the Temple Fortune raid had been modified there to included the hydraulic metal arm, a camera to help reverse the vehicle to the machine and remote controlled lever sysetem.
The trio were arrested and charged on July 25 with conspiracy to commit burglary between 23 October 2008 and 25 July 2009. Thompson was also charged with dangerous driving and driving whilst being disqualified.
Rutter was sentenced to three years and four months imprisonment. Thompson received five years imprisonment and disqualified from driving for five years.
Perry was jailed for five years and eight months imprisonment and disqualified from driving for 18 months.
DI Malcolm said: “The evidence against this gang of three is not only overwhelming but testimony to how much planning and precision they used to commit crime.
“This team went to great lengths to ensure that they had specialist equipment to aid them in their criminal activities.”
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