Terror of gang’s robbery blitz

A JUDGE has warned Greater Manchester is “top of the tree’’ for armed robbery after hearing how the county was put in the grip of terror by an organised crime gang.

The thugs used a team of burglars to break into people’s homes to steal £300,000 worth of high performance cars to use in a string of raids.

And a Coppice man was jailed for his role in fitting false number plates to the stolen cars.

Shahil Ahmed, of Windsor Road, was sent to prison for eight months for handling stolen goods after registration plates found on a string of stolen vehicles were traced back to his car supply business. .

The 41-year-old was paid £50 a time to supply and fit false number plates on to the cars before leaving them at a designated point for the trio of robbers to collect.

Judge Mushtaq Khokhar jailed three professional criminals from Manchester for a total of 28 years after warning the courts would pass tough jail sentences to deter other robbers.

During one of the armed robberies a security guard was stabbed in the leg with a machete as his Security van was targeted while delivering money at a Co-op store in Sale.

In another raid facilitated by the gang a shot was fired as masked thieves escaped with £17,500 in cash at a post office in Flixton, leaving staff and customers terrified.

In a third, an Audi Cabriolet car stolen during one of the burglaries was used in a raid on a Shell garage in Timperley in which the robbers were armed with hammer and a shotgun.
Minshull Street Crown Court was told the gang targeted dozens of homes over a two-month period with burglars keeping watch on properties before breaking in late at night whilst householders were asleep to steal their car keys.

Up to 20 luxury vehicles were snatched from driveways between August and September last year. They were fitted with “cloned’’ registration plates to disguise them before being used as getaway cars.

Otis Hunter (28), from Longsight got 15 years, Kevin Moore, of Walkden, was jailed for nine years four months and Christopher Harris (25), from Salford, got three and a half years for their roles in a plot to help armed robbers stage hold-ups.