Brothers found guilty of taking gun on Haslingden raid (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Brothers found guilty of taking gun on Haslingden raid

9:00pm Thursday 15th July 2010 in

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TWO BROTHERS have today been found guilty of taking a gun to a raid on a cash delivery van.

A jury at Manchester Crown Court returned a unanimous decision against Jonathon and Richard Walsh.

They were accused of possessing a prohibited firearm and possession of a firearm with intent to commit robbery after a 9mm Reck Miami and silencer were recovered from a Mini Cooper used in the Haslingden raid.

The jury is yet to reach a verdict on the same charges against a third man, William Moore.

The men were arrested on September 25 last year after police swooped on the Co-Op car park, Manchester Road, where the men were lying in wait for a G4S van delivering money to the cash machines.

A fourth man, Gavin Noakes, 30, of National Drive, Salford, has pleaded guilty to robbery and firearm charges.

A sledgehammer and the gun were found in the Mini Cooper by officers.

Noakes, who was at the wheel of the car, was shot by a police officer as he tried to ram his way out of the car park past a number of police cars.

Jonathon Walsh, 21, of Dob Brook Close, Newton Heath, was blasted with a stun gun as he tried to drive his way through the roadblock in a Ford Focus.

The swoop by police on the Co-op came after a detailed surveillance operation on the gang.

The week before, on September 18, they had carried out a ‘reconnaissance’ of the cash van from its depot at Agecroft through Darwen and Accrington on the way to Haslingden.

Moore, 27, of Phoebe Street, Ordsall, Richard Walsh, 25, of Mill View Court, Oldham, and Jonathon Walsh, 21, of Dob Brook Close, Newton Heath, have already admitted conspiracy to commit robbery and handling stolen goods.