Gang gets 35 years for reign of terror

Emmanuel Koryang, 22, Peter White, 25, and 19-year-old Lance Cotterell attacked five security guards in the space of just over a month last summer, including a pub raid where they doused a customer in spirits and threatened to set him alight.

The trio first struck on July 30, 2014 when they set upon a G4S driver collecting from Cineworld in Broad Street and made off with the cash-box.

Seven days later they assaulted another driver outside Alexandra Theatre in Station Street and on August 11 repeated the routine as a security guard visited Morrisons at Five Ways.

On September 2 they snatched an empty cash-box during a delivery to RBS in Calthorpe Road, Edgbaston, before carrying out their most violent robbery two days later at the Edgbaston Tap pub where a barman was shot with a taser and threats made to ignite spirits they had thrown over a customer.

A team of detectives quickly identified Koryang, from Colombia Close in Edgbaston - a man with a history of robbery offences - as a key suspect. He was arrested and subsequent searches uncovered forensic property marking liquid on a pair of trainers that linked him to the Cineworld robbery.

Damaged cash-boxes were found dumped in Melton Drive, Edgbaston, with others recovered under Belgrave Middleway.

Cotterell's fingerprints were detected on a plastic bag found next to one of the containers.

White, of Trafalgar Road, Moseley, was arrested days later and Cotterell, of Wynn Street, picked up in December. A taser was discovered in Cotterell's kitchen, while an angle grinder found in a stolen Seat Leon the trio used as a getaway car was found to have property marking liquid from cash-boxes stolen from the Morrisons and Alexandra Theatre robberies.

The three denied conspiracy to rob but were found guilty following a four-week trial at Birmingham Crown Court . Koryang and White were each given 12-year sentences while getaway driver Cotterell was jailed for 11 years.

DI Ben West said: "The men spent their loot as soon as they got it on designer clothes and travelling the country on big nights out. CCTV footage from a club in Newcastle after the Morrisons robbery shows them throwing thousands of pounds around and splashing out on bottles of expensive vodka.

"It's clear from the level of violence used in the final robbery that they were prepared to stop at nothing in order to get what they wanted and when faced with anything more than a lone van driver, their brutality escalated.

"The attacks on the cash van drivers – although well-protected and left with minor injuries – were not victimless crimes against large companies. The drivers, who are just doing an honest day's work often to support their families, have been left extremely shaken by what has happened.

"We've been working really hard over the last year to tackle cash in transit robberies and we're satisfied with the lengthy sentences handed to these three."