Police raid home of suspected cash machine bandits and force entry with chainsaw

Body-cam footage (click to play above) shows the moment when police smashed their way into the home of a suspected gangster, who is thought to be involved in a string of ATM thefts.

The gang rammed a flat-bed van through walls and doors to reach the cash machines containing hundreds of thousands of pounds in cash. They then used angle grinders and ‘jaws of life’ cutting equipment - which they stole from two fire stations – to break them open. The gang struck cash machines in Cumbria, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Leighton Buzzard and Towcester near Milton Keynes.

Detectives say the gang used five stolen high-powered Audis as getaway cars.

West Midlands Police swooped on six addresses in the Midlands and one in Cumbria in a series of dawn raids on Tuesday (15/10). Five men and one woman were arrested on suspicion of attacking nine ATMs in banks and shops across the UK. The raids were part of the force’s Operation Target crackdown on serious and organised crime.

The suspects, aged between 38 and 49, were arrested at properties in Bromsgrove, Bloxwich, Bilston, Featherstone and Carlisle. They are being held on suspicion of conspiracy to burgle, conspiracy to rob and conspiracy to handle lifesaving equipment.