A BRAZEN gang which stole more than £500,000 in meticulously planned cash machine raid at more than 19 shops across the country - including North Wales - have been jailed.

The gang of four men 'left a trail of destruction for their own selfish gain' as they used stolen vehicles and power tools in the nighttime raids, police said.

Liverpool Crown Court heard the gang targeted a ‘specific make and model' of stand-alone ATM machines inside the shops during the large-scale operation.

Shocking footage shows cash machine doors ripped open and dragged through shop floors while attached to moving vehicles.

Rhyl Journal:

The gang targeted 19 shops across England and Wales between March 11, 2022 and July 7, 2022, but were caught when officers chased the getaway BMW.

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It reached speeds of up to 90mph in a 30mph zone after the final burglary at a Co-operative store in Moira, Leics., police said.

And the gang tried to injured the chasing cops by throwing a fire extinguisher and bricks at them.

Lee Leatherbarrow, 33, and Arthur Gaskin, 35, were jailed seven years, Crimea Price, 32, for eight years and John Price, 27, was sentenced to six years.

They'd all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary at an earlier hearing.

Detectives from Cheshire Police launched a probe in April 2022 after a raid at a store in Warrington which saw officers ‘rammed’ by the group as they fled the scene.

The forced identified links to offences spanning the width of the North of England, down to the Midlands and crossing the border into North Wales.

On each occasion, the gang would conduct a reconnaissance of the ATM machines with one of the group using one of the machines in the weeks prior to the offence.

Once an exact location and day was identified, this would kickstart a specific chain of events, the force said.

The group would use mobile phones to communicate and co-ordinate a meeting place before leaving their phones at home so they couldn't be tracked by cops.

They then would use stolen vehicles, two BMWs and a Volkswagen Golf Type R to get to their rendezvous points.

Cops found one of the vehicles stored in a garage in Wigan, which the group thought was a safe location.

In another bid to cover their tracks, they also used multiple cloned number plates relating to similar car makes and models.

They would then steal Ford Transit vans and follow in convoy with one of the other vehicles to travel direct to the store that was to be targeted.

They'd use power tools such as an angle grinder to gain entry to the stores, then drag the machines out before loading the vehicles with cassettes containing cash.

Shocking footage from the police chase after their last raid shows officers swerving bricks thrown at them by the gang as they fled.

When they were eventually stopped, cops found seven sets of number plates, four bottles of disinfectant, bricks, a sledgehammer and circular saw.

Detective Inspector Nick Henderson, from Cheshire Constabulary, said: "This gang left a trail of destruction for their own selfish gain.

"They may have stolen in excess of £500,000 in cash but this does not account for the damage caused to the shops, ATM machines and around 20 vehicles that were stolen in order to commit the offences.

"In total this investigation identified a loss of £1m."

ENDS