Armed gang face jail over raids

Three men have admitted their role in a series of smash-and-grab robberies at jewellers and money transfer shops in London and Manchester.

The men smashed their way into the stores wielding sledgehammers and machetes before escaping on mopeds.

Over the course of a year, they struck at seven stores in London and Manchester, making off with cash, expensive watches and jewellery worth an estimated £500,000 in total.

In one of the robberies, at Carr Jewellers' in Liverpool Street, CCTV and filming by a passer-by captured the men breaking into the store and then being grabbed by a member of the public as he tried to escape.

Thomas O'Connor, 23, of Swan Road, Surrey Quays, south-east London; Alex Parle, 22, of Brunel Road, Surrey Quays, south-east London; and Conor Gartland, 18, of Druid Street, Bankside, south-east London; pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to plotting to commit robbery.