Staring down the barrel of a gun

By Chris Summers and Kieran Fox
BBC News

Two men shot dead last year outside a Hampshire bank were behind a spate of armed robberies across the country. Several of their accomplices have just been convicted.

Security guard Michael Player describes looking down the barrel of his attacker's gun

Michael Player and his colleague Andy Wilson were held up by gunmen as they delivered cash to a bank in Chandler's Ford in September last year.

"It's the first time I have ever looked down the barrel of a gun.
I was wondering if I would be able to move if I heard a click," said Mr Player, 54, who had a gun pointed at him by robber Mark Nunes.

Nunes shouted at him to drop the cashbox and then pistol-whipped him on the wrist.

Suddenly Mr Player heard a loud bang and Nunes fell to the ground.

"My wrist really hurt and I immediately thought he had shot me and then fallen over the box," recalls Mr Player.

But Nunes had been shot by armed police who had burst out of their hiding place in a nearby public toilet.

I could see blood but I couldn't see the police and everything was going through my mind Andy Wilson See a map of the scene

The second robber, Andrew Markland, then made a split-second decision which cost him his life.

Markland reached down and tried to pick up his friend's weapon.

A jury at Kingston Crown Court watched transfixed as a covert surveillance video of the police operation showed Markland being shot and collapsing. A third shot rang out as he lay prone.

Mr Wilson, who was driving the cash delivery van, takes up the story.

"I was in the van and could only see through a tiny hole in the back door. I heard the shots and then I just saw Mick's legs on the ground. I could see blood but I couldn't see the police and everything was going through my mind," he said.

Nunes and Markland had planned to take the cashbox, believed to contain about £25,000, as they had in about 20 raids on cash vans across the south of England.

But police had been monitoring Nunes and his gang for several months and on this occasion they staked out the bank.

Robber Mark Nunes was shot dead moments after this picture was taken

Nunes, Markland and getaway driver Terry Wallace were blissfully unaware of the Flying Squad operation, which was backed up by armed officers from Scotland Yard's crack CO19 unit.

Mr Player recalls: "After Nunes fell over I saw his mate running over and grabbing the gun and I heard police say 'armed police, drop the weapon' and then there was another bang and I was told to get down on the floor."

Eventually his colleague realised what had happened and that Mr Player had survived virtually unharmed.

But the trauma did not end there.

The pair were told to ring their wives immediately and let them know they were safe before they heard about it on the news.

But Mr Player said: "Our families were in a total mess. It was days of upset and my wife wasn't really herself for about six weeks.

"It's amazing the physical damage it does to people. Even now the slightest thing - a report of an incident - can set my wife off."

Nunes (left) and Markland were seasoned criminals

Wallace, waiting in a stolen Volvo car, watched on in horror and immediately fled the scene, eluding a police cordon.

He drove to Basingstoke railway station, dumped the car and took a train back to south London.

Police surveillance cameras later caught Wallace talking to another member of the gang, Adrian Johnson, outside Nunes' home. He can be seen clearly re-enacting the events of Chandler's Ford as he poses like a firearms officer and points an imaginary gun.

He then stumbles as if to mimic Nunes' dying moments.

Asked if he has any sympathy for Nunes and Markland, Mr Player said: "I have got absolutely no feelings for them. I don't understand how they can do that without any regard for anybody. It was just greed. I have no sympathy whatsoever."

Detective Constable Philip Dalton, from the Flying Squad, identified Wallace as the driver of a Land Rover, which was seen reconnoitring the scene earlier.

The IPCC will send a report to the coroner

In court, Wallace had claimed he had never been to Chandler's Ford or even met Markland until 11 September, two days before the robbery.

But mobile phone records showed Wallace, Nunes and Markland had been in Chandler's Ford twice before the robbery to reconnoitre the scene.

The shootings ended a spate of robberies, over 18 months, all of which had been on relatively "low risk" targets.

The Flying Squad would not comment on what led them to start tracking Nunes but a spokesman said "he ran a tight ship, very drilled and professional".

Some days he would leave early to reconnoitre targets and on other days he would stay at home while other gang members would carry out robberies.

But police finally caught up with the gang and put a stop to their crime spree.

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