Basingstoke ObserverFIVE men who were part of an audacious £1.2million conspiracy to burgle homes and blow up cash machines across Hampshire, Dorset and Surrey have been jailed for a combined total of more than 50 years.
The gang’s brazen spree saw them steal high-powered cars, money, jewellery, motorbikes, bicycles and even a one-year-old French Bulldog - which thankfully was returned to its owners.
They also shamelessly put people’s lives at risk in a string of 14 attempted ATM explosions, successfully managing to take money from just three machines but causing a total of £255,928 in damages and losses.
During one of the ATM explosions, a family was asleep in the flat above where the fire was started, while another led to the evacuation of a student halls of residence.
In sentencing them, a judge slammed the gang’s actions as the ‘worst kind of criminality’, which was ‘motivated by unadulterated greed’.
Ringleader David Patrick Hughes, 31, of Street End Close, Hook, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiring to steal, conspiring to burgle and conspiring to cause an explosion. He was jailed for 17 years.
The four others pleaded guilty to the following offences:
Cameron Chivers, 24, of Lydgate Road, Southampton, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cause an explosion, two counts of conspiracy to steal, and conspiracy to burgle. He was jailed for eight years and four months.
Colin Golding, 26, of Reading Road, Farnborough, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cause an explosion, conspiracy to steal, and conspiracy to burgle. He was jailed for nine years.
Adam Jones, 31, of Little Abshot Road, Fareham, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cause an explosion, two counts of conspiracy to steal, and conspiracy to burgle. Jones also pleaded guilty to failing to disclose a key contrary to Section 49 RIPA, namely failing to provide a PIN for a mobile phone. He was jailed for 13 and a half years.
Jesse Matthews, 21, of Coniston Road, Bordon, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cause an explosion and conspiracy to steal. He was jailed for six years and eight months
Jones also pleaded guilty to failing to disclose a key contrary to Section 49 RIPA, namely failing to provide a PIN for a mobile phone.
