Six are guilty of £130k West Bromwich bank raid

Around £40,000 in cash from the raid ended up blowing in the wind on the streets when one of the robbers dropped a bag containing some of the stolen money as he tried to flee from police officers.

Yesterday jurors at Warwick Crown Court convicted the gang of conspiring to rob the Co-op Bank in High Street, West Bromwich on November 26, 2011.

A further three men were found not guilty of conspiracy to rob and a lesser charge of conspiracy to steal.

Jurors had had to decide whether the raid was a robbery, or as five of the men had asserted, a theft.

Shakeel Rafiq aged 31, of Roebuck Lane, West Bromwich, and eight other men had pleaded not guilty to conspiring to rob Natalie Mashhadi and Rebecca Maxam on the day.

But during the trial he pleaded guilty to an alternative charge of conspiring with four others to steal from the bank.

Londoners, Ashley Douglas, 28, of Lambeth, 19-year-old twins Ibrahim and Akim Lyazi, of Tooting, and Jamal Mahmood, 23, of Wandsworth, also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal.

However, yesterday the five men, as well as Mohammed Masud, 30, of Devereux Road, West Bromwich, were found guilty of conspiracy to rob. The men will be sentenced on a date to be fixed before Easter.

Gurminder Johal, 25, of Burlington Road, West Bromwich, Jaspal Rai, 20, of Richard Parkes House, Wednesbury and Afzal Khan, 29 of Grove Lane, Handsworth, Birmingham, were cleared of both charges.

Jurors heard that three men in hooded tops, armed with bats, overpowered the two female staff as they opened up. Within two-and-a-half minutes, the raiders had grabbed £130,000 in cash and fled in a waiting car.

Police used CCTV and mobile phone cell site analysis which showed the London men travelled up to meet the Midlands group just days before the robbery.

When officers visited the London home of Ibrahim Lyazi he tried to escape but dropped the bag containing almost £40,000 of the stolen bank notes.