Assets seized from gang of ramraiders

Police have seized thousands of pounds of assets from a gang who carried out a series of ramraids, including ones in Long Sutton and Crowland.

The items seized, which are believed to have been bought with the proceeds of the ramraids, included an Audi A5 S-line TDI Cabriolet, a Swift Corniche caravan, a Nissan Navara, numerous smaller quad bikes, plant machinery and a tank of diesel.
Officers also discovered cannabis factories at two of the addresses raided, with a potential combined street value of between £18,000 and £54,000.
Addresses raided by officers from Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk, as well as the the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit (ERSOU) and the National Crime Agency, were in Wisbech, Potton in Bedfordshire and Upwell in Norfolk.
They were all linked to Joseph Upton, John Smith and Albert Smith, who were part of a gang of five men who were recently jailed for a total of 22 years for their involvement in a series of ATM ramraids across the region in 2012.
The gang carried out smash and grab raids at 12 banks and businesses and six burglaries during a nine-month crime spree.
They used JCB vehicles to smash into businesses before ripping out cash machines, used cutting equipment to help themselves to more cash and escaped in vehicles they had plundered in burglaries across the Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Norfolk and Lincolnshire.
On August 2, 2012, they got away with £36,000 from a cash machine at Barclays Bank, Long Sutton, and on October 5, £23,000 was stolen from a cash machine in Crowland.
In total, they got away with £301,560 from cash machines and stole cars and jewellery worth more than £100,000.
They also caused damage totalling £250,000.
The assets will now be held as part of the ongoing confiscation investigation into the defendants so that the court can decide what assets the defendants acquired through their criminality and will now have to give up.