IT WAS a chase full of high-performance stunts. Over eight miles, a stolen Cherokee Jeep reversed into a police car twice, crashed into parked cars and even drove over the top of another vehicle to escape.
Police were hunting a gang of robbers who loved excitement and speed. When gang members were finally caught, their passions were more fully explained.
Three top motocross riders were among the gang, also believed to include motocross fans, who carried out armed robberies and carjackings across the Home Counties for kicks. The three were each jailed for nine years yesterday by Guildford Crown Court.
Matthew Dove, 20, from Addlestone, Surrey, was a potential world champion with a £50,000 sponsorship deal. His friend Gareth Davies, 21, from Ashford, northwest London, had a contract with a clothing manufacturer for free gear, and Thomas Chesterman, 19, from Reading, was said to have a bright future in the sport. The three could have passed for members of a boy band with their dyed-blonde hairstyles. All came from respectable families and none had any convictions. All were convicted of conspiracy to rob.
Surrey detectives said that gang members believed they were untouchable and carried out their crimes for the “buzz”. Detective Constable Antony Archibald said: “These young men had promising careers in national motocross but they displayed violence to their victims and put them through a frightening experience.”
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A jury was told that a masked gang armed with an imitation sub-machinegun and knives raided shops across the stockbroker belt. They also carried out carjackings and targeted lone women drivers.
The crime spree began in December 2001 and netted £11,000 in 12 raids across Weybridge, Sunbury, Staines, Englefield Green, Shepperton and Windlesham in Surrey and Harmanswater and Wrays- bury in Berkshire. The targets included stores, off-licences, a garage and a post office. One of the gang would act as a look-out while the others charged in screaming at staff just before closing time. Victims were threatened, kicked and pushed to the ground, while others were left cowering behind counters.
In one robbery a store manager was slashed across the face by a knife waved in front of him. The raiders then rammed the till into his wife’s stomach, sending her sprawling as they fled.
In one carjacking they followed a £26,000 Subaru Impreza from the M25 to Weybridge and then dragged the driver from her car by her hair.
In another, an Audi A3 worth £30,000 was taken while the owner was at a petrol station. Two robbers in balaclavas pushed past and sped away in the vehicle. It was later found by police with the false number plate S3 BAD and had Dove’s fingerprints on the inside.
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Dove admitted stealing a Jeep Cherokee with an accomplice after sneaking into the Foxhills Golf and Country Club in Weybridge, Surrey, and taking the keys from a jacket pocket. He was sentenced to 18 months for the theft, to run concurrently to his nine-year jail term. The net closed on the gang in February last year when police spotted and chased the Jeep. After it was abandoned, police found a “mobile robber’s kit”; a holdall near by contained an imitation Uzi sub-machinegun and handgun with a knife, Elvis mask, a “Scream” mask and balaclavas.
The gang were a tight-knit group and police said they were avid motocross fans, even wearing distinctive multicoloured motocross gloves on raids. These were later discovered by police who also found items belonging to the victims of the carjackings, including women’s swimwear, sunglasses and the keys to one of the cars when they raided the homes of gang members. The group trained together on racetracks, exercised in gyms together and were often seen at nightclubs.
Sentencing the three, Judge Keith Bassingthwaighte said that not all of the gang involved in the robberies had been caught. He said: “Targeting vulnerable people in small shops is something the courts will always deal with severely. The sentence may serve as a deterrent to others who prey upon vulnerable people in the community with such heartless and selfish arrogance.”
Two other men were acquitted. Alan May, defending Dove, said: “He is a young man who could have been a world champion in motocross. Mr Dove is realistic that when he is released he could have lost that opportunity.”
The thrill of the chase
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Motocross involves racing a motorcycle up to 500cc around a rough circuit full of jumps and man-made obstacles, with participants judged on skill, speed and style (Sam Coates writes). There are about 10,000 regular motocross bikers in Britain and about 300 clubs. Beginners can start by hiring equipment at practice grounds before buying bikes for up to £10,000. The sport was imported into Britain in 1989 from America, where it had been invented in 1972 at the Los Angeles Olympic Coliseum. It captured imaginations in continental Europe far more than here, with a huge take-up rate in France, Belgium and Germany. More recently there has been a shift towards indoor tracks, away from the mud in which the sport began.