How time ran out for robbery gang

By Chris Summers
BBC News

Seven men have been handed lengthy jail terms after being convicted of carrying out a series of armed robberies, which ended when police set a trap in a small Hampshire town and shot dead two members of the gang. How were the others caught?

The raid was the culmination of weeks of surveillance

Adrian Johnson was part of a gang which committed at least 18 armed robberies across a wide area of the south of England.

Its leader, Mark Nunes, and accomplice Andrew Markland were shot and killed during a Flying Squad ambush on 13 September 2007, when they tried to rob a cash van in Chandler's Ford, near Southampton.

Undeterred by his friends' deaths, two months later Johnson grabbed £25,000 from another terrified security guard, this time making a delivery to a bank in Colchester, Essex.

ROBBERY GANG Mark Nunes, 35 - shot dead at Chandler's Ford Andrew Markland, 36 - shot dead at Chandler's Ford Terry Wallace, 26 - getaway driver at Chandler's Ford - jailed for 17 years Adrian Johnson, 28 - committed robbery after Chandler's Ford, jailed for 17 years Leroy Wilkinson, 29 - convicted, jailed for 12 years Victor Iniodu, 33 - convicted, jailed for five years Leon McKenzie, 28 - pleaded guilty, jailed for seven years Leroy Hall, 32 - pleaded guilty, jailed for seven years Brian Henry, 32 - pleaded guilty, jailed for six and a half years See a map of the raids

It was the second time the Group4 Securicor (G4S) vans delivering to Colchester had been targeted and security guard Colin Frewer was the victim both times.

When police raided Johnson's house the following day, they found £8,800 in cash, which he tried to pass off as being money which Nunes had given to him the night before he was killed.

But telltale marks on the plastic wraps in which the cash was packed showed it had come from the Colchester raid and could not have come from Nunes, who was dead.

For almost two years the same gang - with different members coming and going over time - had terrorised cash-in-transit guards with virtual impunity.

Their modus operandi was almost identical. All the targets were G4S vans and most of the raids occurred outside the M25, as the guards delivered boxes of cash to small banks.

The nature and similarity of the robberies and the associated evidence reveal them all to have the hallmark of Nunes. They were his design Brendan Kelly QC

They would use getaway cars which had been stolen during burglaries in south London.

Their haul was not great - most of the cashboxes contained no more than £25,000 - but they attacked on an almost monthly basis, and returned to the same venues on several occasions.

Brendan Kelly QC, prosecuting, said there were striking similarities between robberies in Gloucester, Colchester, Bath, Ipswich and Cambridgeshire.

He said: "The nature and similarity of the robberies and the associated evidence reveal them all to have the hallmark of Nunes. They were his design, the research was carried out by him and sometimes others and the execution was carried out by him and others."

Surveillance

Nunes, who had a long criminal record, was already on the Flying Squad's radar and was subjected to occasional surveillance. He was once followed to Cherry Hinton in Cambridgeshire, where he was conducting reconnaissance on a bank.

But although officers knew he was up to something they did not have enough to arrest him.

On 13 September 2007 detectives, backed up by armed C019 officers, decided to follow him and the operation ended in two men's deaths.

This was serious professional crime, played for high stakes, without regard for public safety Judge Richard Southwell

When other members of the gang were arrested two months later, one of the most incriminating pieces of evidence against them came from TomTom satellite navigation devices found in their homes.

Detectives searched the satnavs' memories and found the addresses of several of the targeted banks on key dates before the robberies.

Faced with such overwhelming, albeit circumstantial, evidence, three other men - Leroy Hall, Leon McKenzie and Brian Henry - pleaded guilty to conspiracy to rob before the trial began.

Johnson, Leroy Wilkinson, Victor Iniodu and getaway driver Terry Wallace were convicted of armed robbery.

All seven were jailed on 3 November, with Johnson and Wallace being given the longest sentences - 17 years each.

Judge Richard Southwell said: "This was serious professional crime, played for high stakes, without regard for public safety. In general terms the robberies were highly organised and carefully planned. They were sophisticated and slickly and ruthlessly executed."

G4S's Risk Director, Adam Miller, told BBC News: "Thanks to good work by police, banks and the cash-in-transit industry we have been very successful in driving attacks down. In the half year there were 30% less robberies in 2008 than 2007.

"We have also invested £100m over the last five years in security vehicles and premises but we would like to see more banks designed with wall hatches which would allow cash deliveries without guards having to leave the vehicles.

"If we can eliminate the walk across the pavement we'll reduce the risk," he said.

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