A G4S security guard, Thomas Keane (DoB 25/5/1966), has been found guilty (23rd Jan) of conspiracy to rob his colleagues of £167,000 in two armed robberies and one attempted robbery at banks across Greater Manchester.
Shortly after 0100 hours on 7 September 2017, a group of men wearing balaclavas carried out a violent armed robbery from G4S security guards replenishing the ATMs at Santander bank situated at Bolton Road, Walkden, Manchester.
One terrified security guard was threatened with a single-barrelled
The robbers made their escape in a stolen getaway car with £125,000 in cash.
On 25 March 2018, a similar incident occurred at Natwest bank on Claremont Rd in Moss Side.
Two G4S employees were inside the bank premises and the glass security door automatically shut and locked behind them. The robbers were forced to run off empty handed.
At 7.30pm on 3 April 2018 at Santander bank on Bolton Street in Ramsbottom, masked and armed men smashed their way through the glass door.
They again made their escape in a stolen car with £42,000. The car was then involved in a road traffic accident with a Land Rover, the getaway driver was unable to restart the engine and the four men fled on foot leaving various weapons and tools behind in the car.
Five men, Jack Pennington, David Oxton, Neil Callaghan, Lucas Dodd and Scott Holmes previously pleaded guilty to their part of this conspiracy to rob.
Susan Taylor for the CPS said:
“Thomas Keane played an integral role in this conspiracy to rob innocent men who were going about their daily duties as security officers.
“He was the inside man working for G4S who provided crucial information to members of an organised crime group planning and committing robberies.
“No explanation was offered by Thomas Keane in his police interviews and his actions enabled the execution of armed robberies against his own colleagues.
“This was a serious breach of the trust placed in him by his employers G4S.
“The CPS worked closely with the police piecing together the telephone records to link Keane to the robbers, and were able prove to the jury that he was in contact with two of them during 12-hour periods either side of each of the three robberies.
“One of the calls he made was to Jack Pennington, just moments after CCTV captured him looking at a job sheet in the G4S offices on his day off.
“Throughout the case he denied any knowledge or involvement in the robberies and later insisted any contact with Jack Pennington had been in relation to buying cannabis, even though there is no mention of cannabis in the phone records.
“However after hearing the evidence against him, the jury found him guilty of his involvement in the conspiracy.”
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