A career criminal found guilty of the Timperley Post Office gas explosion laughed in the dock and shouted “what a result!” after being jailed for 11 and a half years.
Mark Marfleet, 37, mixed oxygen and the flammable gas acetylene to blow the front off the Stockport Road ATM – one of two similar attacks he carried out in the area – before escaping on a motorbike.
His June 2015 attack on Timperley Post Office caused such devastating interior damage that the post office was shut for three months and the owner lost £15,000 in trade.
And a single mum who was asleep in the flat above was woken by an explosion which was so powerful it demolished her staircase and ripped through the ground floor area – while her four-year-old son was left “traumatised”.
At Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester, Marfleet – who had previous convictions for robbery admitted, attempted robbery, conspiracy to steal and conspiracy to cause explosions – claimed he was “genuinely remorseful”.
But he then giggled and said “what a result” after learning he could be free in less than six years after a judge ruled half his prison stretch should be served on parole.
Earlier Paul McDonald, prosecuting, said Marfleet would pump oxygen and acetylene into ATMs before use a small electrical charge from a car battery to spark the explosions.
He recounted how his raid on Timperley Post Office had affected Emily Feldman, who at the time was living in the flat directly above.
Mr McDonald said: “Emily Feldman was living with her four-year-old son in a flat above the post office and the explosion demolished the staircase and got rid of her only escape route. Up to £30,000 in damage was done to the building and £10,500 damage to the machine.
“Miss Feldman describes how had subsequently had to live in her mother’s caravan in Wales. The explosion affected her four-year-old son extremely and she details that he has bad dreams and reoccurring nightmares. She lost her home, her independence, her job and for a period of time, her son.
“The owner of the post office lost £15,000 in trade and the post office was shut for three months.”
Marfleet was also found guilty of a raid at a service station in Partington, carried out on September 23rd 2015.
The prosecutor said: “Four men were seen near the ATM putting something in the ATM and moving around the corner when and explosion soon followed. The front of the ATM was blown clean off. Cash was taken and they were seen leaving the scene in motorbikes. Bottles of oxygen were recovered on the scene. £41,200 in cash was taken. The damage to the ATM was £11,000.
“The owner of the service station lost £10,000 in trade, had to repair the service station £35,000.”
Police tracked down Marfleet after examining one of the oxygen canisters to find traces of DNA belonging to Marfleet’s accomplice Paul Warisham, 35.
Officers searched Warisham’s garden shed and found canisters oxygen and acetylene in a backpack along with two-way radios and rubber tubing used to pump the gas into the ATM.
The canisters were found to belong to Wythenshawe Hospital and a tyre company in Stratford. An area of woodland in Sale was searched and two more canisters were found from Wythenshawe hospital.
In mitigation, Marfleet’s lawyer Amanda Johnson said: “Mr Marfleet is genuinely remorseful. He got involved because of financial difficulties and found it hard to find work due to a long criminal record which he accepts is his own fault. He has turned over a new leaf.”
Passing sentence, Judge Bernard Lever said: “These were serious conspiracies. With regards to the first explosion, a lady lived above the post office with her four-year-old child and the impact of the incident had ghastly consequences on her.
“She had to leave the house and live in a caravan. Her son was taken from her and custody given to the father. The second attack on a petrol station caused the front of the ATM to catapult off and strike the petrol pump which could have caused an even more serious explosion.”
Warisham, from Sale, was jailed for eight and a half years after he admitted conspiracy to steal.
Additional reporting: Cavendish Press
