Lorry hijackers must pay back £89,000

Two robbers who were part of a violent gang that hijacked 40 lorries around the Midlands with loads worth a total of £6million were today ordered to pay back a combined £89,000.

Lorry drivers were kidnapped, attacked with baseball bats and left with permanent injuries during the raids which targeted loads of metal.

Peter Saunders, aged 37, and Leigh Astbury, 29, were last year jailed for seven years and nine years at Wolverhampton Crown Court after admitting conspiracy to rob.

They each admitted taking part in three of the robberies. Astbury said he took part but never used violence, while Saunders said he had driven loads once they were stolen.

The raids came to an end when a Jeep Cherokee the men were travelling in was stopped during a routine police stop in Willenhall.

Astbury, whose address cannot be reported, had machetes, knuckledusters and baseball bats in his house and a paperweight made out of nickel stolen from a Smethwick robbery.

Victims of the gang included Romanian Nikolai Vasian, who was in his cab on the Middlemore Lane industrial area of Aldridge when he was woken by the sound of his windows being broken. He was pulled from the vehicle and hit with a blunt object. His £1m load of bronze was stolen.

Polish driver Jaroslaw Bartoszewicz was in Western Way, Moxley, at around 5am when he was approached and told he had a problem with his trailer. Two men with baseball bats pulled him out and attacked him. By luck a passing driver disturbed the attackers, causing them to flee.

Today at Wolverhampton Crown Court, Judge Michael Dudley ruled that Astbury's benefit from the crime spree had been £209,116. But his assets are said to only be worth £88,369. He must pay the smaller figure off within six months or face an extra 21 months behind bars.

Saunders, of Manor Farm, Walsall, was said to have benefited to the tune of £1,000, which he must pay within two weeks or face an extra fortnight behind bars.