Axe-wielding robbers steal £250,000 after attacking cash delivery drivers
Three men have been jailed after stealing almost £260,000 from cash in transit drivers as they delivered money to ATMs.
Paul Dunn, 34, Nathan Kennedy, 42, and Liam McCloy, 35, carried out a campaign of fear and violence in Manchester from 2021 to 2022.
Shocking CCTV footage dated from the summer of 2021, as well as April last year, shows the three men fleeing the scene carrying the cash box.
Each time, the police said, the three masked men had attacked the driver while wielding an axe.
In one robbery, captured on a delivery driver’s van security camera, two of the men dressed in all black are seen running with the cash box after the heist.
Another security tape captured the moment the axe-wielding men barged into a Co-Op supermarket and later ran out with the money.
To try and cover their tracks, the men rented cars and wore balaclavas.
But only days after each robbery the cash would be deposited into Dunn and Kennedy’s bank accounts, ‘leaving a paper trail of the crimes and leading detectives straight to their doorsteps,’ the police said.
The nearly £260,000 Dunn, Kennedy and McCloy stole from cash-in-transit delivery drivers was short-lived – Dunn gambled it all away.
McCloy was arrested on a plane having just touched ground in the UL from a family holiday.
He tried to hide his phone from police with little success, with investigators finding Dunn and Kennedy’s phone numbers.
McCloy had attempted to delete any incriminating messages.
Dunn and Kennedy were handcuffed by Greater Manchester Police officers last August after warrants for their arrest were executed across the area.
Police found £1,000 stashed away in Kennedy’s home.
Dunnm from Hulme, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery and was jailed for 14 years and three months
Kennedy, from Trafford, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery and was jailed for seven years and seven months.
McCloy, from Tameside, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery and was jailed for six years.
Detective Inspector Rick Castley said: ‘This was a series of terrifying incidents that saw members of the public, who were simply doing their job, seriously assaulted by masked men armed with weapons and scared for their lives.
‘Their robbery spree days are now over.’
Sarah Staff, director of the British Security Industry Association, a trade association, said the men used ‘extreme violence’ against the cash-in-transit drivers.
‘The sentences received reflects the seriousness of this offending,’ she said, ‘and on behalf of the industry I would thank all those involved in this investigation for their tireless work in apprehending those involved.’
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