Shropshire Star

Three jailed for 30 years after stealing Shropshire cars for £40,000 cigarette heists

Three Birmingham men have been jailed for a total of 30 years after a series of 20 cigarette robberies and car thefts across the Midlands and Shropshire in less than a month.

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John Gourlay, Anton Richards, Charlie Johnson and Kyran Rooney were last week found guilty of conspiracy to rob following a two week trial at Birmingham Crown Court.

Gourlay, Richards, aged 29, and 19-year-old Johnson all returned to court on 9 April where they were sentenced for their parts in the robberies.

The court heard how the gang stole a series of cars from addresses in the West Midlands, Warwickshire and Shropshire to use as getaway cars in raids on cigarette delivery vans across the Midlands region between 31 August and 26 September 2014.

The robbers also targeted customers as they left cash and carries, having stocked up their cars with tobacco, cigarettes and alcohol.

The gang were stopped on 26 September as they travelled back along the M42 from their latest raid, at a Costco in Derby. The Seat Leon they were travelling in was identified as having been stolen from Droitwich.

Police spotted the vehicle at around lunchtime, travelling towards Birmingham.

The car was tracked by the National Police Air Service helicopter and the driver left the motorway at junction 6 where the driver tried to hide from the 'eye in the sky' under the motorway bridge, but the robbers failed to realise they were being followed by unmarked motorway and force traffic cars, which then boxed them in.

In a bid to getaway the Leon rammed the motorway police car ? thankfully no one was injured.

The gang then jumped out of the car, on the busy A45, and tried to flee but police managed to detain the men - in the case of Gourlay, using CS spray when the 41-year-old, of no fixed address, produced a baton and threatened the police officer at the side of the road.

While in custody they were connected with a further 20 offences over a three week period, where thousands of pounds worth of cigarettes were stolen.

The men were subsequently charged with conspiracy to commit robbery and appeared before Birmingham Magistrates Court on 29 September. The four all denied the offence and stood trial in March 2015.

They were convicted on 8 April, following which Gourlay was sentenced to 13 years and 3 months imprisonment, Richards, of Arderne Road, Chelmsley Wood, was jailed for 11 years and Johnson, of Wychwood Crescent, Sheldon was sentenced to 6 years imprisonment.

Rooney, aged 19, of Moat Lane, Yardley will be sentenced on May 7.

DC Kerri Buckley, of Birmingham East Investigation Team, said: "This was a detailed and complex inquiry into a series of raids on delivery vans and customers of cash and carries across the wider Midlands region.

"The cases were first linked when the gang began to target delivery vehicles belonging to one particular company, the series was then connected along with the thefts of the getaway cars and the robberies of shopkeepers going to stock up at cash and carries.

"The volume of offences in such a short space of time is quite shocking and the length of the sentences these men have received is a testament to that, while reflecting on just how organised this criminal network was."

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