Two Salford bank robbers have been jailed for their roles in a string of terrifying armed bank raids.
Lee Tansey and Rickton Henry were part of a gang which carried out robberies at three banks and took cash totalling nearly £500,000.
The raids, caught on CCTV, included one in which a terrified delivery driver was threatened with a machete and a hammer. In one raid Tansey cut himself on glass as he smashed his way in and was seen trying to clean blood from the bank floor in an apparent attempt to remove his DNA.
After another robbery the gang escaped after a high-speed car chase which ended at the Arndale centre in Manchester city centre.
Tansey and Henry went on the run to Spain after the chase but were captured and sent back to face justice.
Tansey, 33, pleaded guilty to three armed bank robberies. He was jailed for 11 years. Henry, 31, admitted one count of armed robbery and was jailed for eight years, eight months.
Both men were brought to justice as part of Project Gulf, a major crackdown on Greater Manchester's criminal underworld.
The Serious Organised Crime Agency worked alongside police forces and Spanish authorities to trace and arrest the pair.
Project Gulf was a successful pilot scheme for the new National Crime Agency, which was launched by Home Secretary Theresa May today.
Tansey, of Pegwell Drive, Salford, admitted offences relating to raids on Lloyds TSB branches in Leeds and Darwen, Lancashire, along with a raid on a branch of HSBC in Huddersfield.
Henry, of Merridge Walk, Salford, was linked to the Huddersfield raid. All three date back to 2008 and 2009.
Graphic CCTV footage of the Darwen raid in June 2008 shows Tansey smashing through the glass door shortly after the bank had closed to the public.
He injured himself on a piece of glass on the door.
The video shows Tansey, with blood soaking through the arm of his hooded top, removing pieces of glass from the door and also spraying a fluid on the floor, in an apparent attempt to remove DNA evidence from the scene.
In the meantime his fellow gang members threatened staff with a crowbar and sledgehammer and demanded cash from the safe. They escaped with nearly £43,000.
In the robbery at the Lloyds TSB bank in Elland, Leeds, on 18 June 2009 a terrified delivery driver was threatened with a hammer and machete.
CCTV video shows the security guard apparently fighting back at one stage before he is forced into a corner by two armed robbers. The gang got away with around £150,000.
And in a raid on the HSBC in Huddersfield just eight days later on 26 June 2009, a bank worker was attacked by the gang as they stole more than £306,000.
This time police were able to trail the gang and Greater Manchester Police were called later the same day to intercept a Vauxhall Combi van which resulted in a high speed chase through Manchester, also captured on video by the pursuing police car.
The chase ended at the Arndale shopping centre in Manchester when the gang parked in the multistorey car park and escaped on foot. Their van was found to contain a sledgehammer, a crowbar and a machete.
When he was later arrested Henry admitted in police interview that he was driving the van at the time.
Other members of the gang remain are still being hunted by police.
Det Insp Warren Stevenson, of West Yorkshire Police’s Crime Division, said: “These men, armed with potentially lethal weapons, forced their way into banks and stole cash for their own benefits. They showed no concern for the workers who were trying to go about their business when they threatened them with violence if they didn’t hand over cash.”
Matt Burton, from the Serious Organised Crime Agency, added: “Tansey and Henry were targeted as part of a multi-agency crackdown on North west organised crime. They were arrested during joint operations with the Spanish authorities. Our international reach should leave other criminals in no doubt that life on the run will be uncomfortable, insecure and short lived.”
Both men were jailed at Bradford crown court.
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