A gang of men who attempted to tunnel underneath a cash machine in order to steal its contents have been jailed.
Omar Syed Iqbal
Omar Syed Iqbal (08/01/1983) of Ellesmere Street, Rochdale, Damien Green (29/09/1980) of The Boulevard, Manchester, Osman Yirticisahin (13/09/1982) of Fernclough Road, Manchester and Simon McDonagh (06/12/1985) of Victoria Street, Manchester all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary at Manchester Crown Court, Crown Square.
Damien Green
Asghar Ahmed (09/03/1994) of Equitable Street, Milnrow, pleaded guilty to encouraging or assisting an offender.
Asghar Ahmed
On Friday 1 April 2016, Iqbal was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison, Green and Yiricisahin were sentenced to three years in prison and Ahmed was sentenced to one year and eight months in prison.
Osman Yirticisahin
Simon McDonagh failed to attend court for his sentencing and a warrant has now been issued for his arrest.
Simon McDonagh
The plan, dubbed ‘The Italian Job’ in a text message sent by one of the conspirators, involved the men dressing in high-vis clothing and hard hats and using heavy machinery to tunnel underneath an ATM on a busy petrol station forecourt.
Once underneath, the gang planned to access the money by cutting up through the bottom of the cash machine.
At around 4pm on Saturday 5 September 2015, a white transit van parked in a car park on Fernie Street, Cheetham Hill, close to the rear of the Harvest Energy Service Station.
Three men wearing high-vis clothing and hard hats got out of the vehicle and walked across scrub land and up the embankment to the rear of the service station building.
Moments later, they got back in the van and drove off.
Two hours later the van returned and the three men – two of which were Simon McDonagh and Damien Green – began to remove heavy machinery from the back and carry it over to the embankment underneath the service station building.
Over the next few hours, the van – which was driven by Osman Yirticisahin – drove off and returned several times, but the three men remained on the embankment.
At around 7pm, a VW Polo containing Asghar Ahmed and Omar Iqbal drove on to the forecourt of the service station and parked next to the ATM.
A short time later, the white Transit van returned to the car park off Fernie Street and parked up.
Officers – who had the group under surveillance – then arrested Asghar Ahmed and Omar Iqbal and began a chase of the other offenders, finally catching up with Damien Green after a short chase.
Detective Constable Nicholas Kershaw said: “The successful conviction of this gang is the result of a meticulous police investigation into a carefully planned criminal enterprise.
“The evidence points towards the fact that these men had been planning this audacious raid for some time.
“There is no doubt that these men were brazen in their attempt to steal the tens of thousands of pounds contained within the cash machine, carrying out their plan in broad daylight and in front of anyone who happened to be walking past or living in the apartment buildings nearby.
“They trusted in their disguises to hide their heist, what they did not count on was the excellent policing operation that was out to foil their best laid plans.
“The surveillance operation was superbly carried out by our officers and resulted in these men being given prison terms that reflect the severity of their crimes.”
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