DEW:COMPANY BOSS WHO SUPPLIED GETAWAY CAR TO ROBBERS FACES JAIL
A company boss who supplied a getaway-car for a ruthless gang of armed robbers, then tried to destroy all record of the deal is facing jail.
Mark Dew, 38, hired out a black Ford Fiesta out to Craig Mason, 32, before the vehicle was used in a terrifying raid on Nationwide building society in Holt, Norfolk.
Dew later deleted computer records of the transaction after police investigating the robbery linked him to the vehicle and searched his Cars 4 Rent firm, in Ilford, Essex,
Dew also tried to destroy the computer server on which the information was stored but was foiled following a tip-off from an employee at the firm.
Police discovered the server hidden in the back of a van parked close to the business.
Dew today (WED) admitted perverting the course of justice and was warned he faced a possible
‘substantial custodial sentence’.
Prosecutor Michael Shaw said the car was used by Mason – a powerboat racer and friend of glamour model Danielle Lloyd – for the raid in Holt on January 29, 2008.
Mason acted as a getaway driver while gang boss Danny Speed, Lee Watson and Mark Richards smashed their way into the building as two G4S workers were refilling an ATM and made off with £81,000.
The Fiesta had been used as a secondary getaway car after the first vehicle was dumped just yards from the scene of the robbery.
It was linked to the raid after automatic number plate recognition cameras snapped the car making several trips to Holt in convoy with a series of other vehicles used.
Mr Shaw said police checks found the car had been hired by Mason from Dew’s firm Cars 4 Rent.
He said: ‘Officers contacted the company but were given the run around.
‘They attended the premises and spoke to Mr Dew who said he could not help them.
‘They returned the next day with a warrant and searched the premises and recovered the computer systems, which they thought they had taken all of but they had missed the main server.’
Mr Shaw said that night Dew rang the company’s IT specialist to ask about how he could wipe the server.
‘So concerned was the employee that he rang the police himself [ the next day] and told them they had missed the main server and that Mr Dew had had this conversation with him,’ he said.
‘Officers returned the next day to search for the server.
‘It was found in the back of a locked van down the road and we say he was going to destroy it.’
Mr Shaw said that a check of the server revealed that the relevant documents had been deleted.
He continued to say that in the wake of the police visits to his business several phone calls were made between Mason and Dew.
‘There are a series of phone calls which we have identified where Mr Dew is ringing Craig Mason after the police have made their enquiries.
He added: ‘I accept that Mr Dew did not know that the giving of the vehicle to Craig Mason was to commit the armed robbery but we say he did know, shortly thereafter, when the Norfolk Constabulary alerted him to the nature and the gravity of their investigation [that it had been involved in a serious matter].’
Remanding Dew on bail Judge Alan Pardoe QC said: ‘I warn the defendant that there’s a very strong likelihood indeed of a custodial sentence, and quite possibly a substantial custodial sentence.’
Dew, of 47 Hilldene Avenue, Romford, Essex, was bailed to appear before the same court for sentencing on September 1.
Speed and his gang of cronies were all jailed earlier this year for their various roles in a string of armed robberies across East Anglia.
Mason, of (8) Harrow Drive, Hornchurch, Essex, was jailed for 11 years after being convicted of two counts of conspiracy to rob.
Speed, (35) Eisenhower Drive, Beckton, east London, was convicted of five counts of conspiracy to rob between November 3 2005 and September 28 last year.
Watson, of the same address as Speed, was convicted of three counts of conspiracy to rob and having a firearm with intent and jailed for 16 years.
Richards, of (35) Berwick Road, Rainham, Essex, was jailed for 13 years.
ENDS
