Pub raiders jailed after UK crime spree which started in Droitwich - The Droitwich Standard

Pub raiders jailed after UK crime spree which started in Droitwich

Droitwich Editorial 14th Aug, 2015 Updated: 17th Oct, 2016   0

PUB raiders who started a £30,000 pub burglary spree in Droitwich have been jailed for a total of 17 years.

Noel Lacey, of Sibdon Grove in West Heath, and Adam Power, of Crychan Close in Hawksley, broke into 32 licensed premises across the UK, including ten in the West Midlands, over a space of two months.

Wayne Hawkins, 28, from Hollybank Road in Billesley, was also convicted for taking part in the last four raids.

The trio appeared at Birmingham Crown Court on Tuesday (August 11). Lacey was handed seven-and-a-half years, Power received six-and-a-half years and Hawkins was given three years.




Their campaign began at the Copcut Elm in Droitwich, on January 22, when they forced open a side door, smashed the fruit machine with a lump hammer and stole £1,000 in coins. They then repeated the trick, 15 minutes later, at The Golden Lion in Bromsgrove.

Days later, on January 26 they made off with £2,000 from fruit machines at the Unicorn in Alspath Lane, in Coventry, before they went on to attack pubs in Halesowen, Birmingham and Sandwell.


In a bid to avoid the police, Lacey, 40, and Power, 38, cast their net wider and began to target venues in Hereford, Banbury and Cannock.

But, when they pulled into the car-park of Essex pub the Man in the Moon, in Harrow, during the early hours of April 1 West Midlands Police were waiting.

Lacey, who was driving, tried to ram past a blockade of unmarked police vehicles but the three men were dragged from the BMW and arrested.

The BMW hire car they were found in had false plates and two holdalls containing large quantity of pound coins and two lump hammers in its boot.

During their crime spree Lacey and Power used three different hire vehicles as getaway cars.

Lacey and Power later admitted to conspiracy to burgle and one count of robbery for an offence at the Royal Hop Pole pub in Tewkesbury.

Det Cons Darren Brown, said all the break-ins were in the early hours of the morning but there was nothing sophisticated about their tactics.

He added when they seized CCTV from pubs in the days leading up to attacks they showed them casing up the venue, looking at what machines they had and the best entry points.

Det Cons Brown said: “During several of the jobs they disturbed licensees sleeping upstairs and on one occasion attacked two staff members they encountered. They have rightly been handed significant jail sentences.”

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