A RAM-RAIDING gang responsible for a £1 million crime spree including raids on one of Farnham’s oldest retailers John Goodridge Menswear and The Spar in Elstead have been jailed for more than 18 years.

Danny Stevens, Paul Smith, Jason Eastwood and Luke Cole were sentenced at Guildford Crown Court last Friday after pleading guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit burglary and conspiracy to steal relating to 39 offences across the South East.

The four received the following sentences:

• Stevens, 38, of Yateley, Hampshire – seven years.

• Smith, 24, of Shurlock Row in Berkshire - six years.

• Eastwood, 41 of Farnborough, Hampshire – three years and four months.

• Cole, 24, from Doncaster, South Yorkshire – two years.

Together, they stole more than £1m worth of goods including cars, designer clothes and trophies, with £300,000 of the total taken from cash machines.

The gang also caused an estimated £350,000 worth of damage because of their destructive methods, which typically involved reversing a stolen 4x4 pick-up truck through the front of a building.

In one of their raids, in the early hours of Wednesday, November 26, last year, the gang pulled up outside John Goodridge Menswear in Downing Street in a Mercedes 4x4 and smashed through the shop’s 90-year-old front door with sledgehammers.

Blocking nearby roads with fake diversion signs and threatening residents with violence if they didn’t stay indoors, the gang ransacked the shop and made off with around £35,000 worth of clothes from high-end brands such as Ralph Lauren, Hackett and Barbour.

Speaking to The Herald shortly after the break-in, the shop’s third generation owner Bob Goodridge said the burglary would have a huge affect on his business in the build-up to Christmas and he was “almost ready to throw in the towel”.

He didn’t however, and this week Bob expressed delight that the “nasty little crew” were finally behind bars.

The majority of the gang’s 39 offences involved the thefts of cash machines and just weeks after the Downing Street raid, on December 14, 2014, the gang stole the cash machine from The Spar on The Green, Elstead.

Again, the culprits left behind a scene of devastation, littering glass, masonry and other detritus across the pavement and a Shogun 4x4 believed to have been involved in the break-in was later found in Hartley Wintney, Hampshire.

Another trend saw the gang use stolen number plates to disguise the identity of their vehicles, and one such set of plates was stolen from a black Mercedes in Allington Close, Farnham, on March 16 this year.

Another of the gang’s 13 successful burglaries saw them steal more than 60 trophies worth £565,000 from Red Bull Racing headquarters in Buckinghamshire.

Detectives were able to track them down after they left a series of clues during their trail of destruction, including leaving behind evidence of previous burglaries, using the same vehicles and clothes, and having distinctive tattoos.

Stevens, Eastwood and Smith were arrested in the early hours of April 26 at a farm in Berkshire, where police discovered gas cylinders, fireworks, remote ignition devices and wiring used to blow open the cash machines. Cole was later arrested on May 8.

Head of Surrey Police’s Serious and Organised Crime Unit, Detective Chief Inspector Shaun Anderson said: “These four men left a trail of destruction in their wake and thanks to the hard work of our officers they will be off the streets of Surrey for years to come.

“The public can be rest assured that we are committed to tackling organised crime as it can have a direct impact on other areas of offending. By taking career criminals such as these off the streets we can put a stop to countless more innocent people becoming victims of crime.”