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Gang members who blew up north-east ATMs in £130,000 raids jailed

Joseph McHale, 38, and Kevin Schruyers, 42
Joseph McHale, 38, and Kevin Schruyers, 42

Three gang members who blew up Aberdeenshire ATMs and stole more than £130,000 have been jailed for a total of 36 years.

Sentencing them at the High Court in Edinburgh today, the judge told Robin Vaughan, Joseph McHale and Kevin Schruyers, they were career criminals with extreme criminal records and had employed highly dangerous means.

Lady Scott noted that the way the trio had gone about their crimes was “preciously unheard of in Scotland”.

Vaughan was sentenced to 11 years, McHale to 12 years and six months and Schruyers to 13 years.

The attacks on the banks began in August 2013 when the trio arrived in Scotland and stayed in a chalet beside the golf course at Cruden Bay.

They told the owner they were working in the oil industry. They then blew up the ATMs using a mixture of oxygen and acetylene, which experts said was extremely dangerous.

Their raids were brought to an end when the police investigation led to Liverpool where a number of Scottish bank notes with the edges cut off to remove signs of the red security dye started to circulate in the Merseyside area.

McHale, 38, and Schruyers, 42, were convicted of blowing up a cash machine at the Royal Bank of Scotland in Turriff on September 18, 2013, and stealing £21,020; an ATM at Scotmid in North Deeside Road in Aberdeen and taking £112,000; blowing up four ATMs in Ellon, Stonehaven and Aberdeen.

They were also convicted of  stealing clothing and money from a shop at the Paul Lawrie Centre and attempting to break into a cash machine in Mintlaw with a crowbar. Vaughan, 43, admitted blowing the ATMs at Turriff and North Deaside Road.