A GANG who robbed cash in transit delivery drivers before laundering money at betting shops has been jailed for more than 124 years.

The sentencing came following a GMP investigation, Operation Speedway, into an organised crime group (OCG) centred on the Cheetham Hill and Broughton areas of Greater Manchester, with links to Burnley.

The conspiracy, which involved 17 men, saw a series of 10 robberies targeting cash in transit deliveries between August 2016 and June 2017.

Three of the men sentenced were from Burnley - Noel Devers, 31, David Green, 34, and Harry Mackintosh, 21 - who were jailed for a combined six years and 10 months.

Devers, of of Nairne Street, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to rob and conspiracy to convert criminal property and was sentenced to three years and four months in prison.

Green, of Longton Road, also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to rob and conspiracy to convert criminal property and was sentenced to three years in prison.

Mackintosh, of of Jockey Street, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to convert criminal property and was sentenced to six months in prison.

Officers said suspects, who were thought to be working in pairs on a stolen motorcycle and often armed with machetes, would approach cash in transit officers at speed while they were replenishing ATMs at banks and shops.

A police spokesman said: "To launder the money, which was dye-stained by security devices during the course of the robbery, members of the conspiracy visited a total of 47 betting shops across the North West.

"There they would use fixed-odds betting machines to deposit the stolen cash before using credit slips to get clean notes. On one occasion a deposit of more than a thousand pounds was made at a betting shop in Bury."

The conspiracy was unravelled by CCTV footage seized from betting shops and the robberies, witness accounts, evidence gathered from phone records and extensive vehicle enquiries, officer said.

Detective Sergeant Rick Castley said: "These men thought they could steal thousands of pounds without consequence.

"They gave no thought to the hard-working delivery drivers they robbed, or the betting shops they attempted to defraud.

“Their robberies were calculated but often clumsy, and their attempts to launder the cash were ill-judged and naïve.

"I welcome the sentences handed down. A group of very dangerous men have been taken off the streets for a long time.”