Getaway driver jailed for petrol station raid which blew ATM to pieces leaving thousands of pounds scattered across forecourt

Damien Lim b, 27, was driver for the g ang w ho blew up ATM during raid

Explosion scattered £20,000 on forecourt, but thieves only grabbed £3,400

The blast caused £165,000 of damage to petrol station

Limb sentenced to three and a half years while fellow thieves remain uncaught

A thief who took part in a raid on a petrol station which caused £165,000 of damage after a cash machine was blown up has been jailed.

Damien Limb, 27, was the driver during the heist on the Texaco garage, where a masked gang pumped oxygen and propane gas into the cash point to blow it open.

The explosion catapulted the machine's heavy door 25 metres, leaving £20,000 in bank notes strewn across the ground at the garage in Weyhill, Hampshire.

Caught: Damien Limb was jailed for three and a half years for his part in the raid on the petrol station, where a gang blew up a cash machine, scattering £20,000 across the forecourt and causing £165,000 of damage



However, the thieves only managed to scoop up just £3,400 before making their getaway.

At Winchester Crown Court, Limb was jailed for three years and six months for conspiracy to steal and conspiracy to cause criminal damage with unknown persons.

The court heard how in March the gang prized open the cash machine using a crowbar, before pumping the dangerous mix in through hoses and sealing the hole with paper.

Seconds later the mixture ignited, causing a huge blast, which hurled debris up to 34 metres away. The mangled cash machine door sliced through a thick stanchion 'like a knife through butter'.



The heist was captured on CCTV, which showed three men clad in black scrambling around in a desperate bid to grab the £20 notes littering the ground.



Over £16,000 cash was recovered, but the damage the garage totalled £150,000, with another £15,000 for the cash machine.

Limb is the only member of the gang arrested so far.



The court heard how he had been connected to the raid after police followed a trail of cash and wheel tracks from the cylinders’ trolley from the scene, under a bridge where a receipt for water and a small amount of petrol from a garage in Bristol was found.

The thieves used oxygen and propane gas to blow up the cash machine, causing £165,000 of damage to the garage's canopy and petrol pumps

Michael Warren, prosecuting, said: 'As a result of that explosion, police were called and were quickly on the scene and the equipment used to blow the ATM was found.

'Two canisters of oxygen and propane gas were around the corner and also against a wall was a five foot wrecking bar, a Volvic bottle with petrol in it and a wick and by that a bottle top that had the defendant’s DNA and a partial match for two other people.

'It is not a particularly well known method of attacking an ATM machine and it had devastating results.'

Richard Onslow, defending, said Limb, who has a string of previous convictions for burglary and attacking cash machines, had fallen in with the wrong crowd but he was no mastermind.

Mr Onslow said, 'He was asked to provide transport, which he did for this enterprise.

The court heard how the door of the cash machine was blown 25 metres, and sliced through a thick stanchion 'like a knife through butter'

'Asked to carry three others and canisters of oxygen and propane to Weyhill which he did, told where to park and he remained in the van.

'He knew that some damage would be caused to the ATM but he did not expect what happened was going to happen.

'As he waited in the van he heard the explosion and the others returned. The defendant is not the leading light in this conspiracy but he accepts he was wrong by becoming involved in it.”

Judge Jane Miller QC told Limb that the gang was lucky no one had been hurt in the blast. She said, 'Had anyone been passing at the time, clearly some injuries would have been caused.'