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£1m hole-in-wall gang get 40 years
Tim Stewart22.05.09
Twelve members of a teenage gang known as the Terror Zone' who netted almost £1 million in an “extraordinarily professional” 12-month spree of violent security van raids have been locked up for a total of 40 years.
The youths, aged as young as 15 and many still living at home with their parents, were robbing vans delivering money to cash machines at the rate of two a month in 2008.
They punched and kicked security staff as they stole £817,000 in robberies across London and Surrey in under a year, making off with £110,000 in cash in one raid alone.
And police believe that they were responsible for twice as many raids as the 19 they were charged with, taking their proceeds to well over £1 million.
The gang, who came to believe they were “invincible”, planned raids meticulously and hurled the metal cash boxes from the top of tower blocks to crack them and open.
They then laundered the cash, which was stained with security dye, via station ticket machines, Kingston Crown Court heard.
The group, then mostly aged 17 and 18 and mainly from Mitcham, south London, spent their takings on luxury cars, plasma TVs, designer clothes and electrical gear, prostitutes and meals at West End restaurants.
At Kingston Crown Court ringleader Ashley Thompson, 19, his henchman Joel Spears, 22, Ashley Nevers, 18, Rhys Copas, 20, and Kyle Stewart, 19, all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to rob.
Loren Fejziu, 19, Nathan Clarke-Grayson, 20, Cassisus Trotman-Wilson, 19, and a 16-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, all pleaded guilty to taking part in raids.
Three other gang members - Sean Fofanah, Mandala Washington and Dexter Francis, all 17, were previously sentenced after admitting their part in the robberies.
Fejziu took part in one raid while on bail awaiting an Old Bailey trial for his part in 60-strong armed street fight between Terror Zone and a rival gang that led to 16-year-old Eugene Attram being stabbed to death.
Judge Shani Barnes told them: “Had it not been a criminal enterprise, this was one of the most impressive, well-organised series of events that I have seen in a long time.”
Thompson received seven years, Spears six years, Ashley Nevers three years, Rhys Copas two and a half years, Kyle Stewart two years, Fejziu two and a half years, Clarke-Grayson two years and Trotman-Wilson two and a half years.
The 16-year-old walked from court after being given a two year supervision order.
Fofanah, Washington and Francis had already been locked up for seven, three and two years respectively.
The gang were arrested in August 2008. Nevers was found to have over 100 pairs of designer trainers, Fejziu a 50-inch plasma TV and Spears two brand new VW Golfs and £4,000 in cash.
In his police interview, Thompson was asked where all the money was and claimed it had all been spent on cars, stupidness, brothels, food, going to eat in posh restaurants in the West End'.
