A ‘COWARDLY’ gang of robbers who threatened security staff with an axe before stealing more than £70,000 from a van when it made a delivery to a Malvern supermarket have been jailed.
Luke O’Brien, Lewis O’Brien, Ryan Griffin, Chad Pulisciano, Thomas Sidwell and Ryan Weir were all implicated in the robbery which happened outside the Co-Op on Upper Hoswell Road at around 10.45am on April 20.
The dramatic incident saw three security staff threatened by two masked thieves who wielded a pickaxe handle as they were filling up a cash machine.
Once there, the police found the keys from the men’s car opened both the caravan and the door to an LDV van which matched the description of the one used in the robbery ? albeit with different number plates. Inside the caravan were a sledgehammer and a pick axe handle, matching the weapons used.
Sidwell and Pulisciano were arrested together on Stratford Road in Shirley, Birmingham, on April 29 after an officer recognised Pulisciano from CCTV taken from the campsite which showed him driving the LDV van.
Phone records put Pulisciano in the Tewkesbury area and Sidwell in the Birmingham area at the time the robbery took place. Detectives believed Pulisciano was one of the robbers and Sidwell went to the area to drive him back to Birmingham.
Luke and Lewis O’Brien, Griffin and Puliscano pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery at Hereford Crown Court on Friday 18 December. Sidwell and Weir admitted conspiracy to handle stolen goods.
Luke O’Brien, 28, of Vauxhall Crescent, Chelmsley Wood, was sentenced for six years imprisonment. Lewis O’Brien, 24, of Coventry Road, Hay Mills, Griffin, 23, of Millview, Kitts Green and Pulisciano 23, of Dickens Heath Road, Shirley were all sent down for five and a half years.
Sidwell, 30, of Allenscroft Road, Kings Heath, was sentenced for two years and eight months and Weir, 22, of Flaxley Road, Stechford, was given a two-year sentence suspended for 24 months.
Detective Inspector Ben West, from West Midlands Police Force CID, said: “This is a great result and follows some brilliant detective work between West Mercia Police and ourselves.
“What we have here is a highly-organised yet cowardly group of greedy career criminals who rely on audacious heists to make their money.
“The number of offences of this nature is thankfully continuing to decrease but we are not complacent about crime of this type and we will always relentlessly pursue offenders.
“We also work closely with the cash-in-transit industry to prevent robberies on this scale and to keep the people who work in this field safe.”
PICTURE – Top Row: l/r – Chad Pulisciano, Lewis O’Brien, Luke O’Brien.
Bottom Row: l/r – Ryan Griffin, Thomas Sidwell, Ryan Weir
