02 February 2023 , 07:52
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A man, who was allegedly part of a gang trying to steal money from cash machines by blowing them up, accidentally pocket-dialled 999 during one of the raids, a court was told.
The group ended up empty handed on each of their attempts to attack the ATMs in Walsall, Wolverhampton and Coseley, it is alleged during a trial at Birmingham Crown Court.
And during one of the attacks, a gang member accidentally activated a feature on his phone to call the emergency services with the sound recording by emergency operators matching CCTV footage at the scene, a prosecutor said.
Craig Everitt, 43, and Matthew Stokes, 34, have denied a charge of conspiracy to steal money from cash machines. Jake Parkes, 24, has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to burgle reported BirminghamLive.
Timothy Harrington, prosecuting at Birmingham Crown Court, said the gang made six attempts to steal cash from machines in a string of raids during October and November 2018. The first attack, he said, occurred on October 3 on an ATM in High Street, Walsall.
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Everitt allegedly phone-dialled 999 during an ATM raid (Nick Wilkinson/Birmingham Live)Four men got out of an Audi, which was on false plates, and attached a hose to a free standing ATM from the boot of the vehicle where there was a gas cylinder, said Mr Harrington, adding: "They ducked behind a car in anticipation of an explosion but they could not cause the machine to explode and left."
Later the same night the same team went to a hole in the wall machine at an ASDA in Coseley and this time they did cause an explosion but failed to get any cash because the part with the money was undamaged in the blast, it is alleged.
A few days later, Mr Harrington said Everitt and Stokes had burgled a house in Sandbatch, Cheshire, and had stolen a high performance BMW. He said the same car was used in subsequent attacks on ATMs.
The court was told the gang went on to attempt to get into two ATMs at Texaco garages in Wolverhampton on October 15 and 16 but neither raid was successful, the jury were told.
The fifth, target, he said was a machine at a Co-op in Bloxwich and it was during this incident, Mr Harrington told jurors, Everitt mistakenly called emergency services as the group attempted to get into the cash machine.
Everitt was using a Nokia phone and "importantly here he made a mistake" with the phone having a feature allowing the owner to accidentally call emergency services.
"That is precisely what Everitt's phone did during this event and of course calls are recorded. You do not hear any speech on it but what you can hear matches precisely what we can see on CCTV," he said.
Craig Everitt (l) and Mathew Stokes (r) at Birmingham Crown Court (Nick Wilkinson/Birmingham Live)Mr Harrington said the sound of gas pumping, sawing and an angle grinder could be heard.
They were successful in exploding the ATM but again were not rewarded in getting to the money inside. Shortly afterwards the police arrived and the gang made off in the BMW, said Mr Harrington.
It is alleged that Everitt had realised his phone had made the call and that he changed the number to try and avoid detection by the police.
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In their final bid to obtain money the raiders "changed their plan," it was claimed. Mr Harrington said in the early hours of November 22 they used a stolen van to smash into Heron Foods in Coseley causing significant damage. A strap was attached from the vehicle to a machine.
He said "They tried to drag it out but it did not work and they fled in the BMW that had been stolen in Sandbatch."
The car was later burnt out but he went on say that "it seems these thieves were extremely greedy and they took a truck to recover the car for scrap."
Mr Harrington said when police arrived Everitt had given them a "cock and bull story." He said that on December 18, 2018, the defendant Parkes had been involved with others in burgling a premises on an industrial estate in Telford containing things for babies and toddlers.
He said that Stokes had already admitted his part in that offence.
Trial continues.