A 34-year-old man faces an “extremely lengthy sentence” after being convicted of being a part of a gang that struck 29 times in six months last year, including a terrifying raid on Sainsbury’s in Altrincham.
Daniel Adamson, of Hurst Avenue in Sale, was found guilty of conspiracy to rob by a jury at Manchester Crown Court. Another man on trial, Robert Lewis, 46, was found not guilty of the charge of conspiracy to rob after being accused of offering his home as a safe house.
Other members of the “professional” gang have already pleaded guilty.
Adamson was part of the machete-wielding gang that carried out a brazen armed robbery in broad daylight at the Altrincham branch of Sainsbury’s on September 25th last year.
At the time, we reported that an eyewitness had seen three men, all wearing balaclavas, enter the Lloyd Street store at around midday before threatening staff and fleeing with a quantity of cash.
The court heard that the gang left with about £8,500 worth of currency from the store’s bureau de change in an incident which Judge Anthony Cross QC said must have “terrified” staff and shoppers.
In other robberies, a mum and her two children – aged 13 and nine – were forced to hide in a cupboard in their Warburton home after the machete-wielding gang burst into the house and threatened the father.
His teenage daughter heard a robber say: “Show us where the safe is, or we’re going to kill you and the rest of your family.”
The gang left with cash, jewellery and a high-value Mercedes.
Other robberies took place at Co-op and McColls stores in the North West, and a police officer was left “physically sick” after being attacked by the gang while awaiting back-up after following them.
Prosecutor Henry Blackshaw, reported by the MEN, said: “This was professional, organised criminality, and the people involved in it took care to plan and execute their crimes in such a way as to make it difficult for the police to catch them.”
Adamson was caught after a tracker was placed on his car by the police, and his DNA was also found on the steering wheel of a car used in one of the crimes.
Adamson and the other defendants will be sentenced at a later date.
