Lost keys led to hammer gang

ARMED thugs who smashed their way into a Saddleworth home were caught by police after dropping their car keys as they fled.

Dario Eastcroft (19) and Jack Lofthouse (18) went to the address late at night last May, wearing masks and wielding metal bars. A third man carried a sledgehammer.

Householder Ronald Hall, a local businessman, was in the first-floor lounge with his wife and son when the trio smashed their way through the front door shortly after 11pm. He ran down the stairs and was confronted by the three. He was hit with the hammer and fell, and was struck a second time when he tried to get up

Mr Hall grabbed at his attacker’s clothing and in the tussle and all three raiders ran from the home, pursued by Mr Hall’s 19-year old son, Michael.

Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court was told the three managed to get away from the Grotton Meadows house, but one was heard to shout that he had lost his keys.

Police found the missing keys, which fitted a stolen Mitsubishi Colt parked in a side street.

Eastcroft and Lofthouse’s fingerprints were found in the car, and on a bag containing washing-line cord.

Eastcroft was arrested trying to get a taxi. He had no cash and had tried to swop his mobile phone for a ride. Lofthouse was arrested close to the scene of the break-in.

The court was told Mr Hall required hospital treatment for the injuries from the hammer attack.

He said later he was convinced he might have been killed in the attack.

Eastcroft, of Allesley Drive, and Lofthouse, of Dalmain Close, both Cheetham Hill, will be sentenced later this month.

Judge Yvonne Coppel ordered reports to assess how dangerous to the public they might be, before passing sentence.