A GANG that staged a “sophisticated” attempt to remove a cash machine from a filling station were behind bars last night.

Prison sentences totalling 14 years were given by Judge Michael Cartlidge at Durham Crown Court yesterday to four men involved in the unsuccessful attempt to steal the cash machine, which contained £48,000.

The raid happened at Binchester Service Station, on the A688 Bishop Auckland to Spennymoor road, at 3.10am on September 4, last year.

Three vehicles were stolen in the days leading up to the raid by Carl Thexton, Paul Beal and Peter Hauxwell, to help in the raid.

As they used a digger to try to prise the machine from its casing, they activated an alarm. They fled empty handed, abandoning the digger and leaving the cash machine, which was so damaged it had to be replaced at a cost of £40,000.

A fourth man, Mark Dunn, acted as a getaway driver, but a police car heading to the garage saw his VW Golf speeding in the opposite direction.

Richard Bennett, prosecuting, said the VW was stopped at the A1(M) junction at Bradbury, and all four men were arrested.

Thexton, Beal and Hauxwell admitted attempted theft and criminal damage.

Beal and Thexton also admitted taking a 4x4 vehicle, used in the raid, without the owner’s consent.

Hauxwell admitted taking a flatbed lorry without the owner’s consent and Thexton pleaded guilty to a similar allegation relating to a forklift truck.

Dunn denied assisting an offender by acting as a getaway driver, but was convicted by a jury.

Thexton, 32, of Aclet Close, Bishop Auckland, who was previously jailed for 15 months for taking part in a similar raid in Lancashire, was jailed for four-and-a-half years yesterday.

Beal, 30, of St Cuthbert’s Way, and 29-year-old Hauxwell, of Tindale Crescent, also Bishop Auckland, were both jailed for four years.

Dunn, 29, of Lyne Road, Spennymoor, was given an 18- month sentence.

Judge Cartlidge described it as a fairly sophisticated attempt to steal the money, given the planning that had been involved.

Barristers for the gang told the court that no weapons or violence had been used in the operation.