Burglary gang facing up to 35 years behind bars
A gang who carried out a string of burglaries at bookmakers across the country, including Towcester, have been jailed for more than 35 years.
The eight men broke into different branches of Coral bookmakers and removed the safe before driving to another location, forcing it open and taking the money.
While the gang only amassed 65,000 cash, they caused 60,000 in damage and targeted 28 different bookies across the UK.
Ricky Buckland, 25, of Edinburgh Road, Kettering; Karl White, 21, of Holly Road, Kettering; Lee Start, 24, of Haynes Road, Kettering; Dean Taylor, 27, of Edgar Road, Kettering; Jay Buckland, 21, of Lyveden Place, Kettering; Dominic Florio, 24 of Marion Square, Kettering; Lee Harris, 23, of Gordan Street, Rothwell; and Daniel Spence, 28, of St Oswald's Close, Kettering, admitted conspiracy to burgle at an earlier hearing.
At Northampton Crown Court, each was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison, except Harris, who was jailed for four years for admitting his part at an earlier stage during a police interview.
Judge Ian Alexander QC said: "From November 2008 to October 2009 Coral bookmakers were targeted across the country. It became apparent that there was a gang who had chosen them to burgle. Counsel is right, it was not terribly sophisticated to use laptops and sat navs to find the premises.
"Sophisticated is not the right word but it shows quite clearly this was a planned organised conspiracy, it's not something that had been thought up after people had been in a pub and decided to commit a burglary on the way home.
"Someone carefully looked into this beforehand to see where the entrances were, where to put a vehicle and a place had to be located to take the safe to so it could be broken into.
"It is organised crime of a serious level and that is the picture that applies to you all."
The spree began in Letchworth in November 2008, and involved bookmakers in Bedford, Cambridge, Rugby, Towcester, Lincoln, Norwich, Wakefield and Wolverhampton.
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