Cash machine robbers jailed

JASON BUTTERWORTH

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TWO MEN involved in a violent £20,000 robbery in front of horrified shoppers at Shaw Asda have been jailed for a total of more than 16 years.

Jason Butterworth (33) and Michael Ford (34) were part of a gang who targeted security guards making a cash delivery to top up ATM machines at the Greenfield Lane store last October.

The daylight robbery was watched by shocked shoppers who saw one of the two guards ambushed by three men wearing balaclavas and armed with sledgehammers.

One of the security men was punched twice in the face during the incident, and another heard one of the thugs shout: “Just shoot him.”

Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court was told that the three masked men tried to smash open a sealed cash box inside the ATM “bunker” where they threatened the security guards.

Shoppers then watched open mouthed as they continued to try to break it open with sledgehammers outside, before getting into a stolen Audi getaway car.

Ford, of Middleton, was jailed for nine and a half years after pleading guilty to robbery; Jason Butterworth, also of Middleton, was jailed for six years, eight months for the same offence. 


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