Gang jailed for threatening staff and stealing £70k from cash van
A gang of robbers from Birmingham have been jailed for stealing more than £70,000 from a cash van as it made a delivery.
Three security staff were threatened by two masked thieves in the raid in Malvern who wielded a pickaxe handle as they were filling up a cash machine.
Police say they were all implicated in the robbery which happened outside the Co-O, in Upper Hoswell Road, on April 20.
Just a few hours later, police stopped brothers Luke and Lewis O'Brien, Ryan Weir and Ryan Griffin in a car near junction 3a of the M42.
In the footwell of the Seat Ibiza was a rucksack containing £74,460 along with a set of other vehicle keys and a copy of a webpage which contained details to a caravan park in Tewkesbury.
All four men were arrested and detectives headed to the caravan park.
Thomas Sidwell and Chad Pulisciano were arrested together on Stratford Road in Shirley, Birmingham, on April 29 after an officer recognised Pulisciano from CCTV taken from the campsite which showed him driving the LDV van.
Luke and Lewis O'Brien, Griffin and Puliscano pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery at Hereford Crown Court last Friday.
Sidwell and Weir admitted conspiracy to handle stolen goods.
Luke O'Brien, 28, of Vauxhall Crescent, Chelmsley Wood, was jailed for six years. Lewis O'Brien, 24, of Coventry Road, Hay Mills, was jailed for five-and-a-half years
Griffin, 23, of Millview, Kitts Green, was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison. Pulisciano, 23, of Dickens Heath Road, Shirley, was given a five-and-a-half year prison sentence.
Sidwell, 30, of Allenscroft Road, Kings Heath, was jailed for two years and eight months with Weir, 22, of Flaxley Road, Stechford, jailed for two years suspended for 24 months.
