Warwick Hospital among places targeted in cash machine raids across the Midlands

Warwick Hospital was among the places targeted by a gang recently jailed for a spate of cash machine raids throughout Warwickshire, the West Midlands and Staffordshire.

An organised crime gang behind a £250,000 series of attacks on cash machines around the Midlands is behind bars as CCTV footage shows their raids around the region.

Warwick Hospital also came under attack as a cash machine was stolen in December 2018.

Police have CCTV video footage a member of the gang examining a cash machine at the Rugby Train Station before an unsuccessful attempt to steal it a few days later.

Other targets of the gang’s spree of 11 burglaries and attempted burglaries include:

- March 15, 2018 - The gang used cutting equipment to break into Spar in Tamworth before ripping out the cash machine

- September 24, 2018 - The gang cut bollards to get into Birmingham’s Cannon Hill Park, where they dragged a cash machine from the Midlands Arts Centre

- September 29, 2018 - The inside of a Post Office in Lichfield is destroyed when the gang drag the cash machine through it. The gang put tape over CCTV cameras

- October 17, 2018 - The masked gang walk into Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth hospital before loading an ATM onto a trolley and walking out, past members of the public.

- January 27, 2019 - Security guards have to dodge out of the way of the gang’s van after they are disturbed at a cash and carry in Birmingham.

But a major West Midlands Police operation brought the gang down through a combination of CCTV, forensics and phone analysis.

The gang’s downfall began when they were forced to abandon a transit van they were using as a getaway vehicle, following a pursuit. Forensic tests on that, and a fingerprints left on a trolley they’d dumped at one crime scene, helped police identify suspects.

Ringleader Craig Matthews, who has 19 previous convictions spanning 49 offences, left his DNA on a piece of tape used to cover cameras in Lichfield. He was also forensically linked to a registration plate on one of the vans.

The gang was arrested at the beginning of this year and went on to admit conspiracy to commit commercial burglary.

At the end of October the gang were sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court.

Craig Matthews, 42, of Benmore Avenue, Edgbaston, Birmingham was jailed for eight years and seven months.

David Bradley, 28, of Wappenbury Road, Wood End, Coventry, was given five years.

Kenneth Bourne, 38, of Nuneaton Road, Fillongley, was jailed for six years.

Shane Stajsavlijevic, 36, of Hermes Crescent, Henley Green, Coventry, was jailed for seven years and two months.

Charlie Ward, 27, of Pepys Corner, Tile Hill, Coventry, was handed five years.