Botched lorry-jack gang face jail term

Members of a lorry-jacking gang from the Black Country were today behind bars after being convicted of a botched robbery where their leader being stabbed to death.

Career criminal Dean Skidmore, of Brierley Hill, died at the hands of the lorry driver he was robbing.

Jurors took less than four hours to find his three accomplices guilty at Warwick Crown Court yesterday afternoon.

Spencer Howell, aged 35, of Bassett Road, Wednesbury; Danny White, aged 19, of Biddings Lane, Bilston and a 17-year-old boy from Brierley Hill who cannot be named were all convicted of conspiracy to rob and assault with intent to rob.

All three were remanded in custody by Judge Marten Coates who warned them they faced custodial sentences. Howell, White and the youth will be sentenced on July 9.

The gang robbed Greek lorry driver Vasilius Nikolakopoulos outside International Forwarding Ltd in Station Road, Coleshill, on February 26 last year.

Mr Nikolakopoulos stabbed 36-year-old Skidmore in the groin in the attack. The lorry driver said he feared for his life.

The jury rejected the three defendants' claims that it was the driver who had got out of his cab and attacked them while they were stealing from his lorry.