News

Greater Manchester’s prolific robbery gang sent down for 50 years

The 'terrifying' group dragged shop workers across floors and locked a family in a cupboard during armed raids across the region.

The Manc - 1st July 2021

An armed gang who carried out a series of almost 30 robberies across Greater Manchester and Cheshire and made off with thousands of pounds’ worth of goods have been jailed for over 50 years.

Six criminals from Salford, Trafford and Sale targeted local businesses and homes throughout 2019 – threatening shop staff with machetes, dragging one retail worker across the floor by their ankle, and putting another in a headlock.

A mother and two children were also left “scarred for life” after the gang locked them in a cupboard whilst they stole watches, jewellery and the family’s car during a house raid in Warburton.

A shocking 29 armed robberies were committed between May and November 2019.

Jack Yarwood from Salford, Michael Burke from Trafford, Stuart Watson from Trafford, Daniel Adamson from Sale and Michael Kedie from Sale were all jailed at Manchester Crown Square this week (June 29) – with the combined sentences totalling more than half a century.

The first offence took place at a Co-Op in Cheshire at around 9.45pm on 12 May 2019 where three masked men – Kedie, Yarwood and Burke – entered the store and threatened staff with a machete and a hammer and stole cash from a safe.

The gang continued to target retail stores over the next few months, including several Co-Ops in Stretford, Wythenshawe, Lymm, Bowden, Swinton and Cheadle Hulme, as well as a McColls in Bramhall, Poundland in Urmston, Starbucks in Trafford Park, Sainsbury’s in Altrincham and Asda Petrol Station in Sale.

In October 2019, following a Co-op raid on Knutsford Road in Warrington, the gang fled in a Ford Focus and were pursued by police. Two of the men exited the vehicle armed with machetes and ran towards the officer, before getting back into the Focus and driving off – eventually abandoning the car in the Racecourse Estate in Sale.

Officers found cigarettes, cash and other items from the robbery left inside the Focus.

GMP’s Serious and Organised Crime Group division pieced the attacks together through phone and CCTV analysis, surveillance and the support of a large number of witnesses in the case.

Detective Sergeant Richard Castley, from GMP’s SOCG, said: “This was a series of terrifying incidents that saw staff and members of the public in their own homes assaulted and scared for their lives – some of them still haven’t returned to work and some are still recovering from their ordeal.

“The members of the public targeted by these offenders were simply doing their job to serve the public in their local shop or were in their home addresses when they were confronted with this masked gang armed with weapons.

“Their robbery spree days are now over after our thorough investigation and this sends out a message – no matter how organised and sophisticated a group is – we will track offenders down and bring them to justice.”