article_snippet.sent: While in custody, a gang of robbers who had raided a cash and carry were linked to a further 20 offences where thousands of pounds worth of cigarettes were stolen over a three week period.
article_snippet.sent: John Gourlay, left used the vehicles as getaway cars in raids on cigarette delivery vans across the Midlands region between August 31 and September 26 last year.
article_snippet.sent: The robbers also targeted customers as The robbers left cash and carries, having stocked up The robbers cars with tobacco, cigarettes and alcohol.
article_snippet.sent: Speaking after the hearing, Detective Constable Kerri Buckley, of West Midlands Police, said: 'This was a detailed and complex inquiry into a series of raids on delivery vans and customers of cash and carries across the Midlands region. '
article_snippet.sent: The cases were first linked when the gang began to target delivery vehicles belonging to one particular company, a series of raids on delivery vans and customers of cash was then connected along with the thefts of the getaway cars and the robberies of shopkeepers going to stock up at cash and carries. '
article_snippet.sent: The volume of offences in such a short space of time is quite shocking and the length of the sentences these men have received is a testament to that, while reflecting on just how organised this criminal network was.'