£9,855 payback bill for ATM robber

A robber who was part of a gang that carried out terrifying armed raids in Preston, the Fylde and Lancaster has been ordered to pay back nearly £10,000 of his criminal gains.
Philip FisherPhilip Fisher
Philip Fisher

Philip James Fisher, 31, of Wet Earth Green, Salford, who is serving a 12 year jail term at HMP Elmley in Kent, was supposed to appear by video link at Preston Crown Court but refused to take part in the proceedings.

Judge James Adkin ruled they went ahead in his absence.

Fisher was part of a Manchester-based crime group involved in a series of armed robberies on vans containing cash for ATM machines, in 2011 and 2013.

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The gang netted £285,000 in raids in Preston, Lancaster, Cleveleys, Stoke on Trent and Middlesborough, arming themselves with machetes and axes and targeting cash-in-transit vans.

The crime spree included a £70,000 raid at an off-licence in Langcliffe Road, Brookfield, Preston, in June 2013.

Loomis security guards at Brookfield Newsagent were confronted by men in balaclavas as they made a delivery.

A £52,000 robbery was also carried out in October 2013 at an ATM at Santander, on Victoria Road West, in Cleveleys.

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The judge agreed Fisher had benefitted to the tune of £42,666 from his crimes.

However, a financial investigation found he only had £9,855 in realisable assets that the authorities could seize back.

He ordered him to pay the amount within three months of face an extra six month in prison in default.

In a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing in July, the gang’s ringleader Seddon, 37, of Snow Hill Road, Bolton, who is serving 13 years and two months for two counts of conspiracy to rob and one count of dangerous driving, was found to have benefited by £40,828.30.

He only had £1,952 of assets, including his car, to pay back.