Bank robbery plot admitted

Four men today admitted plotting a robbery on a Shropshire bank where £425,000 was stolen from staff as they filled up the cashpoint.

Horrified onlookers watched as raiders smashed a bank window in Dawley last autumn and passed cash boxes back outside before making a high-speed getaway.

The bank has since been closed for security reasons, sparking complaints from residents, traders and Telford MP David Wright about the loss of a community facility.

Colin Farrell, 26, Brian Moran, 24, Paul Fielding, 24, and Gregory Burke, 25, all from the Salford area of Manchester, today appeared before Wolverhampton Crown Court.

All four admitted conspiring to rob two members of staff at Lloyds TSB at Dawley High Street in Telford in September last year.

Judge Amjad Nawaz adjourned the case for sentence to a date to be fixed.

No applications for bail were made and the four men, who were flanked in the dock by security guards, were remanded in custody.

Today's court appearance follows a raid at the bank on September 5 last year.

Police said at the time that raiders arrived in a black Volkswagen Golf between 9am and 9.20am. They said the gang got out of the car, smashed a window alongside the cashpoint machine as it was being loaded, and snatched cash bags and boxes before fleeing.

The car was later recovered in Little Dawley.

A total of £425,000 in cash boxes was taken and several hundreds of pounds in foreign currency. The two female cashiers who were filling up the cash machine were left shocked but unhurt.

Witnesses at the time described seeing a car "zooming" backwards down the High Street before men burst out, smashed the bank window and passed out cash boxes before making a getaway at high speed.

Lloyds TSB bosses have since closed the branch for the safety of customers and because of security fears following the raid. A planning application for a cashpoint at the closed bank has been put in after a campaign.

A new branch could open once regeneration plans for the town come to fruition.