A GANG responsible for stealing, or attempting to steal, from 17 cashpoints and multiple vehicle thefts across the country were sentenced in Ipswich to a total of 17 years today.

Colin Adwent

A GANG responsible for stealing, or attempting to steal, from 17 cashpoints and multiple vehicle thefts across the country were sentenced in Ipswich to a total of 17 years today.

Stewart Bentley, 36, from Ilford, was given three years during the hearing at Ipswich Crown Court, while Martin Godwin, from Romford, who was celebrating his 36th birthday today, received a three and a half year sentence, plus six months for a breach of a suspended sentence.

The remaining two members of the gang, Paul Mockford, 36, from Southgate, north London, and George Welford, 41, from Rochester, Kent, received five years in prison.

The quartet had admitted crimes totalling more than �400,000, after Bentley was caught in Ranelagh Road, Ipswich while trying to make a getaway. The remaining trio were subsequently arrested.

The offences took place between May 2007 and July last year and left a trail of destruction throughout the country

They were being hunted by Kent Police's serious and organised crime unit in connection with other raids at the time of the Ipswich arrest.

Cash machines had been targeted in a number of other counties including Kent, Nottingham, Cambridgeshire, Surrey and Essex.

Detective Sergeant Rob Haines from Kent's serious and organised crime unit said: “We have carried out an intensive investigation together with our colleagues from other forces in order to bring these men before the courts.

“In this joint investigation we have established the full extent of damage, chaos and disregard all four men have had in order to satisfy their own relentless greed.

“These men have targeted areas across the country with no thought of the damage they have left in their wake.”