A Merseyside man who went on the run for seven years following a series of cash machine explosions and robberies has been convicted.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said that Adam Murphy, 35, was part of a gang of eight men who carried out 28 attacks on cash machines in the Midlands and across the North West in 2013.

The cash stolen in the raids on “hole in the wall” cash machines at banks, Post Offices and food stores, and the damage caused amounted to around £1.5 million

The gang’s method was to jemmy open the front of the cash dispenser and insert a mixture of acetylene gas and oxygen through a pipe and ignite it.

The consequent explosion gave them access to the building and the back of the machine where they would steal the contents.

The gang wore dark clothing and face masks to avoid detection from any CCTV images at the scene and they used high-powered cars so that they could get away quickly.

The vehicles were often stolen and the gang used stolen or cloned number plates, again to avoid detection.

The raids and explosions created a real possibility of harm to the public as the machines were often in residential areas. The damage to the machines also caused a great deal of inconvenience to the public.

The gang were eventually traced to a hide-out they had at a detached house in Sandy Meadows in Huyton on Merseyside, just hours after a raid on 27 September 2013.

They were traced as a tracking device had been placed in the cash cassette from the machine they had targeted at a Barclays Bank branch in Warrington.

Other members of the gang were arrested in the following days but Adam Murphy fled and went abroad. He was eventually arrested on 5 December 2019 in Liverpool.

Craig Cartwright, Kurt Richard Beddoes, Ian Ellis, Anthony Bushell, Thomas Whittingham, Jonathan Webb and Daniel Morgan were all eventually jailed for conspiracy to cause explosions and conspiracy to burgle commercial premises.

Anthony and Andrew White were charged with both offences too but were acquitted. They were later convicted of Conspiracy to blow up cash machines following a separate investigation.

After Adam Murphy was arrested in December 2019, he was charged with Doing an act with the intent of causing an explosion and conspiracy to commit a burglary. He denied the charges and gave police two, conflicting, written accounts of his actions on the night of the raid on Sandy Meadow.

Murphy sacked his original defence team and a fresh trial began on 25 February 2021. On Tuesday the jury at Liverpool Crown Court agreed with the CPS and found him guilty of the offences.

Senior Crown prosecutor Maria Corr of CPS Mersey Cheshire’s Complex Casework Unit, said: “Adam Murphy was one of a gang of determined, organised criminals who would let nothing stand in their way.

“They used powerful explosives to gain access to the cash in these machines with no thought for the possible risks to the people living nearby.

“The conviction of Adam Murphy brings to a successful conclusion a difficult and complex investigation and prosecution involving different police forces and many defendants.

“Adam Murphy continued to try and avoid facing up to what he did until the end. He scapegoated his original defence team and sacked them as he tried to think of a different and even more dishonest defence.

“He claimed that he came under the influence of other members of this gang. But all this has proved fruitless and he has now been brought to justice.”

Adam Murphy will be sentenced on 22 February.

Many banged up!