Ebbw Vale ram raider jailed for Pontypool Co-op raid

Gareth James, 38, and three accomplices used a digger to smash their way into the Co-op store in Garndiffaith, Pontypool.

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Lowri Wynn Morgan, prosecuting, said the thieves then used the agricultural machine to lift the ATM on to a Mitsubishi pick-up truck before they sped off.

She told Cardiff Crown Court: “At around 2.30am on April 1, 2019, at Stanley Road, CCTV showed a white telehandler being rammed into the steel shutters causing substantial damage.

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Gareth James

“There were four individuals present and a Mitsubishi L200 with false plates reversed into the store.

“Ropes were attached to the ATM machine, which contained £88,000, before it was dragged out of the shop.

“The telehandler was then used to lift it on to the back of the pick-up truck and the four made off.”

She added: “The telehandler was left in the middle of the road and it was forensically examined.

The damage following the ram raid to the Co-op which cost £80,000 (Picture: Steven Dimitrakis)

“The defendant’s DNA was recovered from the handbrake.”

Miss Wynn Morgan said James, formerly of Ebbw Vale, and his gang had stolen the £8,500 agricultural forklift a few days before from a farm at Penpergwm, near Abergavenny.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of burglary.

A similar raid took place in Treharris just over month later 

The prosecutor told how James was jailed for 40 months at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court last year for a similar offence.

She said: “The Co-op in Treharris was ram raided before a vehicle was used to take the cash machine away.”

The defendant has 32 previous convictions for 103 offences, including 22 for theft and related crimes.

The court was told that the gang caused £80,000 worth of damage to the Co-op in Garndiffaith and £4,500 of damage to the telehandler.

Christopher Rees, representing James, said: “There was professionalism involved in this.”

The judge, Recorder Mark Cotter QC, said: “This was an extremely sophisticated criminal enterprise.

“You ram raided a shop using a telehandler and proceeded to steal an ATM.

“You were on a spree of offending.”

James was jailed for 16 months which will run consecutively to the sentence for the ram raid of the Co-op in Treharris.