An ATM raider caught after his girlfriend flagged down police for directions has been jailed for more four years.
Ellis Boyd was part of a masked gang that tried to blow up a cash machine at Spar on Clifton Road, Aberdeen earlier this year.
They failed to get any cash and fled back home to Merseyside – but Boyd’s DNA was found on the gas pipe used to cause the blast.
Weeks later, it popped up on the police computer after the 26-year-old was detained by officers who smelled cannabis in his car after his girlfriend stopped to ask them for directions.
At the High Court in Glasgow yesterday, Boyd was jailed for 52 months for his part in the ATM raid.
Look-out Ian Jones – who has 47 previous convictions – was jailed for 56 months.
Last night Detective Inspector Norman Stevenson, who led the investigation, welcomed the conviction and said their “crude” attempts to blow up the machine was “fuelled by greed” had put local residents at “risk of significant injury”.
Judge Lady Scott told the pair: “You fed a gas pipe through the ATM and caused an explosion. This has become more prevalent in Aberdeen, especially involving criminals coming from Liverpool.
“This was a well planned enterprise.”
When they failed to blow open the ATM door, they forced their way into the Spar.
Both men admitted unlawfully and maliciously causing an explosion likely to endanger life or cause serious damage, and trying to force open the ATM with intent to steal it.
Defence counsel Iain Smith, representing Jones, told the court his client had “expressed remorse” and thought they were travelling to Scotland to steal a car.
Defence counsel Craig Findlater, representing Boyd, told the court: “This was an incident which was unsuccessful. No money was taken.”
But DI Stevenson described it as a “reckless” crime, and said: “Fuelled by greed, Jones and Boyd made a crude attempt to steal from a quiet community in the most reckless of ways. Their attempt may have been unsuccesful, however the fear they inflicted on the people who either witnessed the explosion or had to deal with the aftermath cannot be underestimated. They also put local residents at risk of significant injury and it is extremely fortunate that no one was hurt or that wider damage was caused.”
