Man involved in JCB ram-raid on Henfield bank branch jailed

A cash machine with £55,000 inside was ripped from the building

Author: Ryan BurrowsPublished 21st Mar 2021

A man has been jailed for his part in ram-raiding a Barclays Bank in Henfield with a JCB digger and stealing an ATM containing more than £50,000.

31-year-old James Sayers, formerly of Guildford in Surrey, was part of a group which stole three vehicles, including a JCB Telehander digger, in the early hours of April 15th, 2018.

They then used the hydraulic digger, minus its bucket, to pull the ATM from the wall of the bank in High Street, Henfield at 2am that morning.

The ATM, which contained £55,000 in cash, was loaded into a stolen Nissan Navara pick-up truck and later dumped, along with the pick-up, and burned out in Oakendon Woods, Dunsfold.

As the stolen Audi A6 estate car left the woods, just before 4am, the suspects were confronted by a member of the public whose vehicle they rammed.

Sayers admitted one count of theft, relating to the ATM and its contents; and a second count relating to the JCB Telehander, at Hove Crown Court on March 9th.

He also admitted two counts of receiving stolen goods, relating to the theft of the Nissan Navara and the Audi A6, both between April 5th and April 16th, 2018.

Sayers also admitted a similar ram-raid at a Co-op store in Didcot in Oxfordshire.

Sayers was sentenced to 30 months imprisonment for both offences.

The sentence will run concurrently to a five year sentence Sayers is currently serving for a similar ATM ram-raid in Hampshire in 2019.

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