A TEAM of burglars, who travelled from Liverpool to target village pubs in Bidford-on-Avon and Ilmington, were caught when a police car rammed their getaway vehicle.

All four men had pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to burgling the Golden Cross pub in Bidford-on-Avon, on June 20, escaping with the safe, till drawers and two air rifles.

James Bigley, Ellis Boyd, Richard Spring and Joseph McCarthy also admitted a burglary at the Red Lion in Ilmington, taking tools and an axe, and aggravated vehicle taking.

Boyd, aged 22, of Carlisle Way, Liverpool, who was on licence from an earlier prison term at the time, was jailed for a total of 23 months – but the other three were given suspended sentences.

Prosecutor Cathlyn Orchard said: “These were planned and targeted burglaries. They were vulnerable targets, two village pubs.

“The defendants had stolen or obtained a stolen BMW and put false number plates on it before driving to Warwickshire.”

They first went to the Golden Cross pub in Bidford-on-Avon where, to avoid alarms downstairs, they used a ladder from the yard to climb onto a flat room from where they cut through the metal bars on the window of the first-floor office.

They then removed the glass from the window to get into the office, stole the till drawers with cash in them, the safe containing about £1,500 and some money that had been collected for charity, as well as two air rifles.

But although they did not trigger the alarm, they disturbed landlady Debbie Honeychurch who made a 999 call to the police as she watched them from her window.

She then told the operator: “There are four of them, all masked. They are just about to lift my safe into their car. It’s a black BMW. They’re just lifting my safe into that car.”

Although she could not make out the registration number straight away, she was able to see it as the car drove off.

At the Red Lion, the landlord went downstairs at 9am to find tables and a bench had been stacked up as the gang, who had broken into a store cupboard and taken tools including a sledgehammer and an axe, had unsuccessfully tried to get to an upstairs window.

Following the call from Miss Honeychurch police officers flooded the area and, knowing the direction they headed from the pub, set out to intercept the gang as they headed north along the A435 dual carriageway towards the M42.

An officer at the side of the road in an unmarked car saw the BMW as it passed him and, as he began to follow it, alerted colleagues further ahead who set out stinger mats across the road.
As the BMW approached the spot, driven by Bigley, he spotted the stingers and slowed down before starting to do a u-turn to head back the wrong way along the dual carriageway.

But the police driver rammed the side of the BMW, and other officers rushed over to smash the windows and drag the gang out and arrest them as Bigley revved the engine, trying to pull away.

Bigley, aged 23, of Windfield Close, Liverpool, was sentenced to 22 months suspended for two years; Spring, also aged 23, of Hawthorne Road, Liverpool, for 23 months suspended for two years; and McCarthy,aged 20, of Westhead Walk, Liverpool, for 19 months suspended for 18 months.