A RAIDER who blew up part of a York petrol station has failed in his bid to hide some of his ill-gotten gains from the authorities.
George Tunney, now 26, is currently serving 11 years for conspiracy to cause explosions, conspiracy to burgle and other offences.
York Crown Court heard how he and other gang members toured Yorkshire and the Midlands blowing off the front of cashpoints so they could get at the money inside.
Katherine Robinson, prosecuting, said Tunney had spent some of the money he got on luxury items.
But he had also stashed some of it away so it couldn’t be confiscated under laws aimed at preventing criminals benefitting from their crimes.
Tunney claimed he had not hidden any, but the Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris decided, after hearing him giving evidence, that he had and ordered him to hand money over within three months or face six more months behind bars.
York Crown Court heard last year how staff at the Co-op Service Station in Great North Way, Nether Poppleton hid inside their shop in January 2020, fearing sparks from the gang’s angle grinders would ignite forecourt petrol tanks when Tunney and others attacked the ATM on their site.
The gang got away with £57,000 which Tunney later told York Crown Court they had shared three ways between them. He continued his explosive crimes until March 2020 when he was arrested with two other gang members after a 130mph chase round the York Outer Ring Road.
This month police and the prosecution took him back to court to force him to hand over the proceeds of his crimes.
Ms Robinson said that police financial experts had calculated Tunney had benefited by £77,575 from his crimes and the judge agreed.
The prosecution showed the court a video police had taken of Tunney’s home at the time of his arrest on a Doncaster traveller’s site. It showed high value jewellery and other items and goods and bags from upmarket brands such as Louis Vuitton and Gucci. Not all were seized by police.
She alleged that as well as high spending on luxury items, Tunney had stashed £11,000 away and not told the authorities about it.
Tunney, giving evidence, accepted that he had bought the high value items in the video using proceeds of the ATM raids. He alleged he had also spent some of the money on stays in London hotels and £11,000 of the money settling a drug debt he had run up before the raids.
The judge said he didn’t believe the story of the debt and ordered Tunney to hand over the £11,000 within three months or spend an extra six months in jail.
All the valuable items seized by the police from the static caravan were also confiscated.
The items were worth £1,200, the court was told.
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