PO terror raiders locked up

Peter Dentith

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THREE men involved in terrifying robberies at two post offices in Oldham, have been jailed for a total of more than 22 years.

The robberies, in which victims were threatened with a gun, were among 14 similar attacks on small businesses across the Greater Manchester over seven months from November 2013.

In the first, an armed raid on Greenfield Post Office on November 5, 2013, postmistress Mandy Gorey was confronted by two men - one armed with a gun, the other with an axe - at the shop in Chew Valley Road. They threatened to shoot her before escaping on a motorbike with around £2,000 from the tills.

In March, police launched a manhunt after Diggle sub-postmaster Paul Borg was held up at gunpoint by two raiders in a copycat raid. They too sped off on a motorbike.

Paul Turner (42), who admitted being involved in seven of the robberies, was jailed for 10 years and given a three-year extended licence. Judge John Potter said he he classed him as dangerous and believed he had been involved in at least 10 of the raids, including the Oldham ones.

Turner, of Longsight, restarted his criminal activities completing a 10-year sentence for almost exactly the same type of robbery with an imitation firearm. The judge told him he was “someone who lives by greed, violence and dishonesty.”

Yan Tingle (36), of Denton, who admitted involvement in both Oldham post office robberies was sent down for six years and four months.

Father of three Peter Dentith (37), who admitted involvement in the Diggle Post Office raid, and an attempted robbery at a jewellery shop in Marple, was also given six years and four months.

The judge told him he was a “violent and dangerous man willing to subject others to dreadful levels of fear and intimidation.”

Manchester Crown Court was told the same imitation gun was believed to have been used in many, perhaps all, of the robberies. An axe or a crowbar were also used in the raids.

In the Greenfield Post Office robbery, both men were described as “aggressive and excitable” one waving the gun around shouting: “Where’s the safe?”

He took all the cash he could from the tills, then pointed the weapon at the postmistress shouting: “Open it or I’ll shoot you.”

The pair fled on a Kawasaki Ninja bike bought days earlier by Tingle and later abandoned in Greenfield.

In the robbery at Diggle in March 2014, the postmaster was confronted as he stood outside with his keys and repeatedly hit after being ordered to open the door. The thugs got away with only £100 in coins.

The court was told the gang, some of whom have yet to be identified, got away with thousands of pounds in cash, spirits and cigarettes from the 14 robberies.

All three men had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery and to possess an imitation firearm with criminal intent.