Smash-and-grab robbers who stole £200,000 during crime spree face jail

Raid: two of the gang raid a Louis Vuitton store. The handbags were found in bin bags at an accomplice’s home
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A smash-and-grab gang who stole more than £200,000 in cash and designer handbags during a four-month crime spree across London and the South-East were facing jail today.

They used stolen vehicles to track security vans through London, ambushing guards and escaping on mopeds.

Charles Durkin, 25, joined in despite serving an eight-year sentence for robbery. He was let out of Ford prison on day release, the Old Bailey heard, and joined Alan Kelly, 21, David Kelly, 31, Michael Lewis, 29, Daryl Salisbury, 25, Lee Smith, 24, Sonney Colligan, 23, and Lewis Sokhi, 28, in the raids on cash-in-transit vans.

Between February and June 2014, the gang stole £110,500 in cash in 13 robberies, the court heard.

The Kelly brothers, Salisbury and Lewis were snared after a £70,000 raid on the Louis Vuitton store in Sloane Street in June 2014. Smith and Colligan were caught with thousands of pounds worth of handbags after a £38,000 raid on designer shop Larizia in St John’s Wood.

The handbags were found stuffed in bin bags at an accomplice’s home.

All eight admitted conspiracy to commit robbery.

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