On Thursday (June 19), the first day of the trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court, a jury was told by prosecutor John Lloyd-Richards that the crown would try and prove the eight defendants, most from the Black Country, were complicit in stealing more than £673,000 in cash from ATMs nationwide between January 1 and October 15 of 2024.
He said: “It is our assertion that they used sophisticated tools including ‘jaws of life’ which, to the uninitiated, is hydraulic cutting equipment capable of drilling into walls, to get inside the cash machines. It is often used to free people from vehicles, such is its power.
“Where you and me would use a card and a pin number, this group, we say, used an altogether different technique including angle grinders, to get into the machines out of hours, in locations as far away as Leighton Buzzard.
