A gang has been caught on camera using a digger to rip a cash machine containing nearly £80,000 from a village shop.
The digger, which was stolen from a nearby farm, was used to smash down the wall of the Co-op store in Debenham, Suffolk, causing £30,000 of damage.
Three members of the gang leapt through the hole and put straps around the cash machine so that the digger could yank it outside over the rubble.
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The digger, which was stolen from a nearby farm, was used to smash down the wall of the Co-op store in Debenham, Suffolk. One of the thieves is pictured above
It was hoisted into the back of a Ford Transit before the gang fled with it just after 3.30am on November 12 last year.
But a tracking device revealed to police that the machine containing £78,420 had been taken 13 miles to a disused barn at Syleham near Eye, Suffolk.
Officers were driving down a country lane on their way to the barn at 4.05am when a stolen red Audi S4 estate was driven driven towards them by members of the gang.
The driver tried to do a U turn in the narrow road but ended up crashing into a hedge as police rammed into the car and hemmed it in.
The stolen digger is pictured being used to knock the wall down. It was hoisted into the back of a Ford Transit before the gang fled with it just after 3.30am on November 12 last year
The two men in the front jumped out and ran across a field into the darkness, leaving accomplice Jesse Gatehouse, 30, trapped in the back seat.
Gatehouse of Colchester, Essex, was arrested as officers, assisted by a dog unit, searched in vain for his accomplices.
The white Transit van was found nearby around ten minutes later, with the cash machine and its contents still inside.
Gatehouse was charged with the burglary of the store and remanded in custody in prison.
The two men in the front jumped out and ran across a field into the darkness, leaving accomplice Jesse Gatehouse, 30, pictured above, who was trapped in the back seat
He was visited in jail by Suffolk Police’s Operation Converter unit, which allows defendants to admit otherwise unsolved crimes to be taken into consideration when sentenced.
Gatehouse admitted he had a role in stealing the Audi two week earlier from a house in Danbury, Essex, and stealing the Ford Transit and teleloader digger in the hours before the ram raid.
The Ford transit van was stolen from outside the village hall in Bures St Mary, Suffolk, and had its roof ripped off to accommodate the cash machine while the teleloader was taken from a farm near Debenham.
He also admitted talking part in a raid when a stolen Land Rover Defender was reversed into the front of a SPAR shop in Glemsford, near Sudbury, Suffolk, just before 2.45am on November 4, although nothing was stolen.
Gatehouse was jailed for 52 months at Ipswich Crown Court after he admitted charges of burglary, attempted burglary, vehicle theft and criminal damage.
Judge David Goodin told him: ‘As commercial burglaries go, they don’t come much more serious.’
Russell Butcher, prosecuting, said the offences took significant planning and were aggravated by their impact on the community.
Kelly Fernandez-Lee, defending, said Gatehouse had been very co-operative with detectives, despite his reluctance to name his accomplices.
She said the father-of-three played a subordinate role in the raids and was genuinely remorseful.
Detective Inspector Matt Adams of Suffolk Police said after the hearing: ‘It will come of great reassurance to local businesses to see Jesse Gatehouse locked up for the foreseeable future and it is only because of his early guilty plea and engagement with the Op Converter team, that he avoided a sentence of more than seven years in prison.
‘The prompt arrest and conviction of Gatehouse was made possible by the fantastic police response on the night of the ram raid in Debenham.
The ram raiders were caught on camera using a digger to rip a cash machine containing nearly £80,000 from a village shop
‘Not only were local officers involved with the search for the offenders, but they were assisted by colleagues from the Roads and Armed Policing Team – who brought the Audi to a stop – and also the Police Dog Unit.
‘Although the other two offenders evaded capture that night and remain at large, our efforts to identify and locate them continue. However, the positive outcome of that night was that at least one of the offenders was caught and the cash machine was located with the money still inside.
‘Crimes like this leave a trail of destruction and numerous victims in their wake; from the people who have their vehicles stolen and often written-off through misuse; to the tens of thousands of pounds worth of damage caused to the buildings.
‘This usually results in the shops having to close for a period of time, losing the business further income and denying many residents the use of a vital local amenity.
‘The great work of the Op Converter team means that Gatehouse has now admitted his involvement in seven offences in total, rather than just the one he had been charged with, and so I hope this provides the other affected parties some degree of satisfaction.
‘We still have other criminals to bring to justice in connection with these offences and so I would urge anyone who knows anything that could assist our enquiries to come forward.’
Anyone with any information is asked to contact East CID at Lowestoft Police Station, quoting reference number 68441/19.
Three members of the gang leapt through the hole and put straps around the cash machine so that the digger could yank it outside over the rubble