Jurors hear accusations in ATM 'grab and drag' gang trial

Prosecutors say Paul Smith, 30, was also the driver when three other members of Oxfordshire-based organised crime group broke into the National Horseracing Museum in Newmarket and made off with trophies worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Opening the trial against him at Oxford Crown Court yesterday afternoon (Wednesday), prosecutor Barry McElduff said: “This case concerns the activity of a gang, a gang of burglars and thieves, a gang who were active in this area and beyond for just about a 12 month period from June 2019 to June 2020.

“As you will see, there will be breaks in the offending - breaks caused by the loss of members, breaks cased perhaps in part by the first lockdown. But, nevertheless, a gang who involved themselves in high organised criminal activity.”

The first ‘wave’ of the gang’s activities, which did not involve Smith, saw them pump gas into ‘hole in the wall’ ATMs to blow them up and access the cash-stuffed cassettes inside.

They earned an early success that saw them make off with £74,000 from a Co-op in Leavesden, near Watford, on June 13, 2019. The group, led by James ‘Jimmy’ Sheen, 37, were said to have found the technique of blowing up the cash machines less than effective.

They changed tack, Mr McElduff told the jury, using 4x4s to pull the ATMs from the shops. Jimmy Loveridge and Smith, both 30, were recruited after Shane Harris, 32, was arrested at an M5 service station with a stolen car packed with the burglar’s tools of the trade.

The ATM in the wake of the raid on the Co-op, Leavesden in June 2019 Picture: WATFORD OBSERVER/NQ

Smith is said to have been involved in two such heists: in Charvil, near Reading, on April 29, and in Bletchingdon on May 11.

The defendant was also allegedly the driver when Sheen’s gang went from Oxfordshire to Newmarket on the night of May 8.

Three of the men Sheen, ‘trusted lieutenant’ David Riley, 26, and 30-year-old Jimmy Loveridge, broke into the National Horseracing Museum and snatched antique race trophies.

On May 14, a passing police officer allegedly interrupted members of the gang trying to steal a Toyota Landcruiser, which prosecutors claim would have been used in the ATM ‘grab’ raids, from a driveway in Horndean, near Portsmouth. The gang, driving a stolen BMW, managed to slip away from the police after a chase through Waterlooville, jurors were told.

Mr McElduff said that, three days later, the gang moved on to the final phase of the year-long conspiracy, which saw them steal hundreds of thousands of pounds' worth of farm machinery.

The Co-op in Bletchingdon, Oxfordshire, after an attempted ATM theft on May 11, 2020 Picture: OM

He told the jury that the gang had communicated extensively by WhatsApp voice messages. Smith claimed that one phone recovered from Manor Farm caravan park, near Kidlington, was not his alone – despite it holding voice notes in which he discussed the crimes, had been used to take topless selfies and had conversations on it with women.

Smith, of Hearmon Close, Yateley, Hampshire, denies conspiracy to commit burglary of commercial premises fitted with ATMs, burgling the National Horseracing Museum, attempting to steal a Land Cruiser 4x4 and use of a stolen BMW. He has admitted conspiracy to steal farm machinery.

Four others have admitted various charges in connection with the thefts.

The trial continues. Mr McElduff is expected to finish opening the Crown’s case against Smith this morning.

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