Gang confesses to robberies (From Witney Gazette)

Gang confesses to robberies

8:22am Monday 12th March 2007 in Witney By The Page Turner

A GANG of armed robbers has pleaded guilty to a number of raids, including hold-ups at shops in Chipping Norton and Eynsham.

s=8The five-strong group admitted conspiring to commit a series of raids, including one in which 13 Co-op workers were held hostage.

On January 23 last year, four men wearing balaclavas, and one brandishing a sawn-off shotgun, ambushed staff at the Co-op in the Westgate Centre, Chipping Norton.

The employees were held hostage for up to an hour-and-a-half, until help arrived, and the men fled on motorbikes with cash from the safe.

The weekend's takings were reported to be about £30,000, although the Co-op did not confirm the amount that had been taken.

Last week, Adrian Barradell, a spokesman for the Co-op, declined to comment until the men have been sentenced.

The Chipping Norton raid was one of 11 armed raids at supermarket stores across the Midlands between October 2005 and April 2006.

In a raid on Tesco Express, in Eynsham, on February 18 last year, four balaclava-wearing robbers attacked the garage store as staff prepared to open.

The men forced their way into the store between 5.30am and 6am, and pushed four members of staff into a back room.

The robbers tied them up and demanded information about the shop's safe, before taking thousands of pounds.

One male member of staff was kicked in the head, and had to be taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, for treatment.

At Nottingham Crown Court on Wednesday last week, Richard Kavanagh, 31, David Bracken, 27, and Sean Reilly, 24, all from Coventry, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit armed robbery between October 2005 and April last year.

Co-accused Daniel Bracken, 29, also from Coventry, previously admitted robberies in Brackley, two in Daventry, along with the Chipping Norton raid, Tesco Express, in Eynsham, and two others at Kenilworth and Tamworth.

Darren Summerfield, 32, previously pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving while disqualified, and possessing cannabis.

He also admitted robberies in Buckingham, Brackley, Kettering, Kenilworth, Coventry, and Daventry. Kavanagh admitted conspiracy to commit robberies with Daniel Bracken, Darren Summerfield, and persons unknown, pleading guilty on the basis that he was involved in robberies only from January 27, 2006.

Reilly admitted the same charge on the basis he was only involved in the raids on Brad's News in Middleton Cheney, near Banbury, on March 27 last year, and Tesco in Kenilworth.

The gang was suspected of 11 robberies on supermarkets in Oxfordshire, Northamptonshire, Staffordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Warwickshire.

All five defendants were remanded in custody until a sentencing hearing next month at a date to be fixed.

The investigation into the robberies was led by Northamptonshire Police, which declined to comment until after the sentencing hearing.

Thames Valley Police also declined to comment. David and Daniel Bracken