In the dead of night on a remote Highland rail track, a new breed of criminal discovered that Scottish law enforcement is far from toothless. With only the glow of the moon and the glint of flashlights to lift the darkness, the well-honed tracking skills of Northern Constabulary’s police dogs came up trumps as a cross-border raider was brought to justice.
It was in October 2007 that convict John Hind’s busman’s holiday was brought to an unexpected end. The 54-year-old, from Colne in Lancashire, had set out that evening to raid a rural post office – reassured by its far-flung location and encouraging isolation. What the English visitor did not realise was that his every move was being watched by a surveillance team from the local police force. When it did eventually dawn on him that his nocturnal expedition was about to be cut short by the boys in blue, Hind headed for the hills. His escape route took him over rugged terrain as he attempted to shake off the attention of the pursuing officers but, again, the criminal had underestimated his adversaries. When the police dogs were unleashed to track their target, it was game over and brought a mini-crimewave to an end. It also represented a significant achievement for Northern Constabulary, the proud Highlands police force which was consigned to the history books when Police Scotland was introduced as part of a huge streamlining project in 2013.
What Northern Constabulary succeeded in doing during its lifespan was bringing law and order to a patch equivalent in size to Belgium. From the city streets of Inverness to the sprawling expanses of the mainland countryside and from the trunk roads of the central Highlands to the backwaters of the islands, they had it covered.
Hind was later jailed for that evening’s robbery but the conviction represents just the tip of the iceberg for Scottish officers fighting a wave of English criminals sweeping into the country to take advantage of what are perceived as easy targets. And perception is a major factor in fuelling the problem. According to those involved in stemming the tide, there is a growing consensus of opinion among the criminal fraternity south of the border that Scotland is somehow trailing behind their own land when it comes to crime prevention and detection. As a result, all roads lead north for the gangs intent on seeking out fresh hunting grounds and travelling north in numbers to carry out raids on what they view as soft touches in the isolated corners of a country more renowned for its rolling glens and tranquil lochs than organised crime. But those same gangs have been given a stark warning – there is no place to run and no place to hide. With individuals and gangs responsible for crime tours under lock and key after successful prosecutions in the Scottish courts, detectives have vowed to continue their efforts to ward off the threat posed by touring villains they believe are responsible for a series of unsolved robberies that follow a similar pattern to closed cases in recent years.
As Aberdeen-based Detective Inspector David Hadden warned, officers were braced for the challenge posed by the alarming trend. He said, ‘Criminals from other parts of the UK intent on travelling to the area to commit crime should be aware they will be met with a hostile reception and will be vigorously pursued.’ DI Hadden had played his part in high-profile investigations into the modern phenomenon, not least the conviction of a trio of Liverpudlians for a botched attempt at robbing a north-east bank in what was described as an ‘organised’ operation by a visiting group of ‘villains’ by a High Court judge during a prominent trial. And, indeed, they did find a hostile reception from Hadden and his colleagues. Although, admittedly, that did not serve as an absolute deterrent.
In 2013, the Grampian region found itself in a whirlwind of activity. More than half a dozen cash machines in and around Aberdeen were allegedly targeted and a string of golf centres raided as high-value goods vanished into the night. Paul Lawrie, golf’s 1999 Open champion, was among those on the receiving end when £30,000 worth of clothing and equipment went missing from his Deeside driving range and golf course. Lawrie, using his public profile to vent his anger, did not hold back, describing those responsible as ‘scumbags’ in a volley delivered through the medium of Twitter.
What followed the proliferation of thefts and attempts was a very high-profile game of cat and mouse that ended when a stolen Audi, bearing false registration plates, was recovered in woodland in Aberdeenshire and subsequently an arrest was made. At the time of writing, the man in question, a Liverpudlian, is awaiting trial in connection with a number of alleged incidents.
Those involved in the operation vowed to leave no stone unturned, something officers covering the more rural beats continue to pride themselves on. The promise of vigorous pursuit was best demonstrated in the Highlands during the apprehension of Hind and some fellow Englishmen suspected of a series of Post Office raids at remote locations dotted across the north of the country.
During the course of the summer and autumn of 2007, a total of £45,000 in goods and cash was taken during incidents at a string of locations in Moray and the Highlands. As the investigation progressed, detectives came to the understandable conclusion that the raids were linked and went public with their theory that the perpetrators were not local. It had the hallmarks of a well-organised and calculated campaign of thefts, rather than spur-of-the-moment or opportunistic attacks.
While Hind and Matthew Peters from Bournemouth were found guilty of stealing a safe from Glenuig Post Office – the incident in which Hind was arrested under the cover of darkness after being tracked by the police dogs – the pair had already been formally acquitted after being charged with carrying out 13 other break-ins at post offices and commercial premises in the Highlands during the same period. Hind and Peters were also acquitted of stealing a car in the village of Lochailort and using it to assault a Fort William-based police officer to the danger of his life. Peters, however, was found guilty of stealing a safe during a break-in at Embo in Sutherland. On that occasion, the accused, who was 40 at the time, escaped with £7,000 in cash and stock worth £1,926. No value for the Glenuig raid was ever disclosed.
The convictions for the Glenuig and Embo thefts brought to an end one of the longest-running legal sagas the Highlands have ever witnessed. The decision of the jury at Wick Sherriff Court came in September 2011 – almost four years after the duo had been apprehended by police in Glenuig. It also came after a five-week trial, a duration which set a new record for that particular courthouse. In contrast to the trial length, it took the jury just an hour to reach majority verdicts and pass a guilty verdict on each of the accused. For the normally sleepy Caithness town, that five-week period provided an injection of drama and intrigue as the details of a concerted police operation were played out in great detail. That operation had been set up to try to solve break-ins across Caithness, Sutherland, Ross-shire, Lochaber and Moray. In the end, only Glenuig and Embo were resolved – with the other 13 investigations not yet resulting in a conviction. The spate of attacks on premises in such unlikely crime scenes was headline news, as was the trial of Hind and Peters in Wick.
Like any area, Caithness suffers from occasional incidents of crime but, by and large, it is a safe and peaceful part of the country to live in. The nearest city to Wick is Inverness – a 200-mile round trip that takes more than four hours. Because of that isolation there is a real sense of community throughout the area and people look out for each other. People also have a loyalty towards the local businesses that serve the towns and villages so well – any attack on those businesses feels like an attack on the community as a whole.
There was real concern when a sudden rush of break-ins in the north and west Highlands commenced in the summer of 2007. Police made repeated appeals for information and found a willingness among the locals to help, with many people coming forward to offer assistance as the investigations progressed. It soon became apparent that officers were following a positive line of enquiry but what people did not realise until the trial of John Hind and Matthew Peters was some of the fine detail of the work being done behind the scenes.
The trial understandably drew a lot of attention. It was the talk of the town for weeks on end. Because of the rarity of that type of crime in the Highlands, there was a lot of media attention and the fact it involved two individuals who had travelled the length of the country to commit their crimes made it all the more fascinating for those following the court proceedings. It brought a realisation that no area is immune to criminality. In the aftermath, there was definitely a sense that greater attention was being paid to security and I would say that remains the case. Distance is no barrier – if somebody is determined to carry out a break-in, spending a few hours on the road to do that is not really any deterrent.
For many people, particularly those outside Scotland, there is a perception that the Highlands are some sort of untouched wilderness. There’s an impression that somehow that part of the world is removed from the normal reach of the law. Obviously, that is very far from the true picture but, unfortunately, not everyone is smart enough to realise that.
The details played out in court showed the lengths Northern Constabulary went to in order to apprehend the suspects. They combined good old-fashioned police and detective work with the use of new technology as well as the skills of their police dogs to bring it to a conclusion. If that hadn’t happened, there could well have been other incidents.
The reference to technology relates to the tracking of mobile phone communications which was revealed by police witnesses during the trial. Northern Constabulary statistician Maria Wright had been tasked with tracing calls from mobile phones believed to belong to Hind and Peters, using information obtained from masts throughout the area, in a bid to paint a picture of their movements. The defence solicitor dismissed Wright’s evidence as ‘meaningless’, claiming there was no hard evidence linking the accused pair to the phones recovered by police. In addition to the mobile phone observations, it was also revealed in court that a white Vauxhall Omega – a powerful model so often the preserve of traffic police patrols the length and breadth of Britain – being used by the two men in the dock had been secretly tracked by officers who had singled the duo out as suspects following the break-ins across the north.
Detective Callum Macleod was part of a team who had been detailed to follow the pair and was on their tail on the night they chose to target the post office branch at Glenuig, a hamlet around 30 miles west of Fort William on the rugged Lochaber coast. Standing at the scene of the crime, it is not difficult to imagine why the location proved attractive to visiting criminals. The post office sits on the main road to Fort William, the A861. The geography of the branch and the fact it was targeted were surely not coincidental – with the Northern Constabulary base at Fort William a 35-mile journey away along winding country roads, a trip that would take you or me close to an hour to complete. Admittedly, officers responding to a 999 call would be able to cover the ground slightly more quickly but it was certainly remote enough to give raiders a significant window of opportunity to execute their plan and make their escape.
Location was not the only influencing factor – the fabric of the Glenuig outpost was likely to have been an attraction to John Hind as he plotted to get rich quick. The tiny green pre-fabricated building nestles in a recess carved into a hillside strewn with stones and shrubs. It sits opposite rolling fields, with a glimpse of the open waters off the coast in the distance. The building, with the simple word ‘SHOP’ stencilled upon its exterior and only a small ‘Post Office’ sign to give away its dual role, looks as though it could be prised open using little more than a tin opener. Compact and bijou, up until 2007 it had been nothing more than a simple part of the fixtures and fittings of the area but it was soon to take centre stage, as police closed in on Hind and Peters.
During the subsequent trial, DS MacLeod spoke of his team’s efforts to follow the targets. A number of officers were involved on the night in question and, as the Englishmen carried out their planned raid and made off with the safe and its contents, the police team moved in. The two made their getaway along a neighbouring railway line. PC Sean McNeil was part of the chasing pack, calling after the suspects and shining his torch in their direction. He recalls, ‘For a split second, they were like rabbits in headlights. They were taken a bit by surprise.’
It was left to a police dog handler to take up the chase, catching and detaining Hind in handcuffs after a difficult search in which the night’s other offender made his exit. Another police dog handler and his canine sidekick had more joy in locating a safe from one of the north break-ins.
Whilst Hind and Peters were found guilty of the raid at Glenuig on the west coast, it was Peters who took the punishment at the same trial for a similar break-in on the east coast of the Highlands at Embo. The tiny Dornoch village, more than 45 miles from police headquarters in Inverness and over an hour’s drive from the city, is a peaceful seaside retreat. Its post office, like the one at Glenuig, comprises a counter within a store – in this case, a newsagent’s shop in a small detached building situated in a narrow lane leading down to the shore and surrounded by residential properties. Its position was clearly appealing to Peters, who was around 650 miles from his home on the south coast of England when he made off with his £9,000 haul without being apprehended but brought to justice months later during his trial in Wick. Peters was sentenced to two years in prison while Hind was hit with a 15-month jail term. However, those punishments pale into insignificance in comparison to the sentences meted out to another clutch of Englishmen found guilty of misdemeanours north of Hadrian’s Wall.
Liverpool trio Anthony Jackson, Peter Purcell and Terrance Jackson were jailed for a combined period of more than 20 years in 2010, after being found guilty by a jury of an attempted robbery at an Aberdeen bank in September 2009. The travelling group were lambasted by Lord Uist as he passed down the sentences, hoping to send out a message to others intent on seeking out Scottish targets. He declared at the High Court in Aberdeen: ‘Serious crimes of this sort simply cannot be tolerated and villains such as you three must expect strong sentences – not just to punish you but to deter others who may be tempted to carry out this sort of crime. It is clear that you are all Liverpool criminals who thought you could get away with this crime in Aberdeen.’
What Jackson, Purcell and Jackson thought and what proved to be the case were two very different things. They failed to evade police – having first failed to get their hands on the cash they had planned to grab during their attempted bank raid.
The drama unfolded during an eventful day on the south side of Aberdeen, with two separate incidents to keep Grampian Police on their toes. The locations were within two industrial areas of Europe’s oil capital – Altens and East Tullos. Both sprawling districts are home to a mix of industrial, commercial and office premises. Major multinational oil corporations such as Shell sit side by side with car showrooms, scrap yards and small-scale enterprises scattered throughout a maze of streets and lanes criss-crossing between units of varying sizes. Those roads are busy throughout the day as one of the city’s key business areas throngs with activity. The Altens and East Tullos industrial parks straddle the A90 Aberdeen-Dundee road to the south of River Dee, acting as the boundary to the city centre. It was on 11 September 2009 that the two normally unremarkable areas became the settings for some remarkable events.
Firstly, a Royal Mail van was targeted as its elderly driver went about his daily rounds. Anthony Jackson would later be convicted of the crime, striking as driver John Sim, who was in his 70s at the time, stood at a post box 30 feet from his parked works vehicle on Wellington Road. Jackson drove off with the van and its contents, as a panicking Sim was left to flag down a passing police car for assistance. The distinctive Royal Mail van was spotted in the area, drawing the attention of motorists because its doors were swinging open as it threaded its way clear of the crime scene. Fitted with an electronic tracking device, the van was later recovered after being abandoned in the Altens industrial estate. A resident of Blairs, a village in neighbouring Aberdeenshire, told the court that she had discovered a pile of burning mail, later identified as being linked to the van theft, that same evening. It was a terrifying experience for Sim, who had retired from his Royal Mail role by the time Anthony Jackson stood trial. But the event proved to be a precursor for an even more intense operation by the Liverpudlian threesome hours later.
In nearby East Tullos, a security van team was subjected to a terrifying experience as they arrived at the Halifax Bank of Scotland branch on Greenwell Road. The modern bank sits alone on a patch of ground at the entrance to the industrial estate, a small building but one which welcomes a steady stream of customers throughout the day. Its location opposite the city’s Porsche and Range Rover dealerships belies its earthy, industrial surroundings. With its relatively open aspect, it was viewed as a viable target by the Liverpool gang. Equally important was its location. Just a stone’s throw from Wellington Road, one of the city’s main thoroughfares, it ensured an easy escape. Stretching from the fringes of the city centre to the southern suburbs of Aberdeen, Wellington Road can be a traffic hotspot but, at the time of the bank raid, around 9.30 p.m., it would have been relatively deserted – a quick and easy to navigate exit route.
The trio wore masks and dark clothing when they ambushed Christopher South and his colleague Craig Richards, brandishing metal bars as the guards visited the branch to collect money from the safe. It was every security man’s worst nightmare, as the scenario they are trained for was played out – a scenario they hope never turns into reality. That night it did. South appeared as a witness at the trial of the group and told the court that he had heard rustling from bushes as he went about his duties and then had seen ‘three or four’ men rushing towards him. The assailants shouted and swore at their victim, ordering him to drop the cash box he was carrying before pushing him to the ground and striking him with a metal bar as he struggled to open the box. It was only then that the raiders discovered the box South was carrying was empty – a crushing blow to their get-rich-quick scheme. Compelled to rapidly change tactics, they tried to force their way into the bank in a desperate attempt to come up with a plan B but Richards had remained inside and was able to secure the building and activate his panic alarm to scramble the emergency services. One of the raiders was said by Richards to look ‘a bit lost’ when he refused to allow them to enter the bank. They hadn’t bargained on the resilience of their victims or their admirable dedication to their role in protecting the bank’s cash.
It transpired, during the trial, that the East Tullos branch had held concerns for the security van team, with Richards admitting in court that he worried about the lack of light due to overhanging branches and trees which sheltered the site from the streetlights on surrounding roads. It would appear he was not alone in recognising the potential threats to the protection of cash deliveries to the branch, with the gang clearly identifying the possibility of planning a raid.
Those responsible for the bungled attempted robbery fled the scene in a black Mazda 3 – empty-handed. The car was found two days later at the nearby Thistle Hotel in Altens.
Detectives poured hundreds of man-hours into tracing those responsible. In a high-profile trial at the High Court in Aberdeen, the perpetrators Jackson, Purcell and Jackson were all found guilty of attempted robbery at the HBOS branch. Anthony Jackson, who was sentenced to nine years in prison, was also found guilty of stealing the Royal Mail van and its contents. Purcell, who was sentenced to six years in custody, was found guilty of stealing a car, which was used in the attempted robbery, from Wellheads Industrial Estate, Aberdeen, on 10 or 11 September. Terrance Jackson, who was also found guilty of giving false details to police, was sentenced to seven years and six months in jail. All three had denied all of the charges against them. Anthony Jackson was found guilty of the attempted bank robbery by a majority jury verdict whilst the 12-strong jury reached a unanimous guilty verdict on all of the other charges. It took them just four hours to reach their verdict.
Before sentencing, the court was told all three men had a string of previous offences. Lord Uist observed: ‘This was an organised crime that must have involved some degree of reconnaissance to find out what time the van would arrive at the bank. That you did not obtain any money was just down to the fact that you swooped when the guard was carrying an empty container.’
Of equal concern to the authorities was the trauma the innocent victims were subjected to during the course of a day of crime. Detective Inspector David Hadden led the investigation and said it was purely ‘down to luck’ that no one was seriously injured. DI Hadden added, ‘These were serious crimes where members of the public legitimately going about their daily business were the victims.’
Both Anthony Jackson and Terrance Jackson lodged appeals against their conviction but both failed. The fact they and Purcell ended up behind bars represented success for Grampian Police in the fight against visiting criminals but, with one battle won, it represents just part of the war on this new type of threat.
Aberdeen in particular is no stranger to cleaning up the mess left behind by outsiders, with Midlands drugs gangs and others from Liverpool and the North-west of England on the receiving end of some aggressive detective work by Grampian’s finest – leading to a string of convictions after a wave of proactive operations to curb the threat.
With a motley crew of English interlopers dealt with through the courts in the north and north-east of the country on the back of a series of raids and attempted robberies, police chiefs remain intent on sending the unwanted tourists homeward to think again.