NIGHT TIME LORRY RAID GANG JAILED; MASKED MEN PREYED ON SLEEPING DRIVERS.
Byline: By JAMES GLOVERLIVERPOOL gangsters who carried out a spate of lorry raids across the country have been jailed for a total of 70 years.
The gang preyed on sleeping truck drivers in a series of violent night time raids, stealing goods worth about pounds 700,000.
They carried out eight robberies between October and December last year, often armed with fake guns and other weapons.
Southampton crown court heard the robbers stole plasma televisions, microwaves, keyboards and other computer parts and a pounds 40,000 load of Cognac.
In one attack they beat up a French truck driver and held him hostage for 10 hours near Winchester on October 8.
Prosecutor Christopher Parker said the man was woken in theearly hours by men wearing balaclavas.
Over the course of the next two months similar robberies were reported in place including West Yorkshire, Rugby and Dover.
Detectives from Hampshire's force crime unit led the investigation and traced the gang throughtheir mobile phones. Phone records and number plate recognition technology enabled officers to track the movements of the men from their Liverpool homes to the areas where the lorry drivers, who were all foreign, were targeted.
They were at the scene of allincidents and, in December, police raided Merseyside firm Same Day Transport.
There they found stolen vehicles used in the robberies and also the balaclavas that contained DNA evidence.
John Dahl, Neil Wan, Darren Price and Paul Ellis, all admitted conspiracy to rob, conspiracy to possess imitation firearms and conspiracy to steal.
Warren Hughes admitted conspiracy to rob and conspiracy to steal and John A'Barrow admitted conspiracy to steal.
The owners of Same Day Transport, Francis Pybis and Ian Adderley, admitted conspiracy to handle stolen goods.
As the sentences were read out, cries rang out from the packed public gallery and extra police were needed to calm disturbances outside the court
What they got
JOHN Christopher Dahl, 34, of Killarney Road, Old Swan, Liverpool - jailed for 12 years. Paul James Ellis, 24, of Woodside Way, Tower Hill, Kirkby, Merseyside - 10 years. Darren John Michael Price, 30, of Manhattan Place, Liverpool city centre - 12 years.
John Paul A'Barrow, 27, of St Pauls Close, Tower Hill, Kirkby, Merseyside - 30 months. Ian Adderley, 39, of De Havilland Drive, Skelmersdale, Lancashire - 6 years.
Francis Pybis, 35, of Broadoak Road, Dovecot, Liverpool - 6 years.
Neil Anton Wan, 26, of Roby Road, Huyton, Merseyside - 12 years.
Warren Hughes, 28, of Makin Street, Walton, Liverpool - 8 years
CAPTION(S):
FRANCIS PYBIS; DARREN PRICE; PAUL ELLIS; WARREN HUGHES NEIL WAN; JOHN DAHL
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| Publication: | Liverpool Echo (Liverpool, England) |
|---|---|
| Date: | Oct 18, 2005 |
| Words: | 425 |
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