Bristol drug addict targeted cash machines

A drug addict smashed open cash machines in Bristol with a crowbar and grabbed more than £6,000 to feed his habit, a court heard.

Damien Limb,  22, was with another man when they targeted ATMs in Emersons Green in March, Bristol Crown Court heard.

Limb, of Lichfield Road, St Anne’s Park, was later caught after police found an incriminating fingerprint in a car.

He pleaded guilty to burglary and attempted burglary but avoided a jail sentence  – instead being given a 12-month community order. His partner in crime was not caught.

Rupert Lowe, prosecuting, told the court that in March a 14-year-old girl living nearby was woken by an alarm activating at the Shell Garage in Badminton Road, Downend, and saw two figures dressed in dark clothes and with a metal bar.

She called police and when they investigated they spotted a VW Golf car in the area but no offenders. The cash machine had been damaged but no money taken.

Mr Lowe said that just under two hours later police were called to Boots in Emersons Green, where a cash machine had been attacked, although again, the thieves had not managed to remove any money.

Police saw Limb and another man running off.

Mr Lowe told the court: “Police called a dog handler and Mr Limb was 150ft from the ATM, hiding in bushes and the dog located him and he was arrested.

“He was wearing a black balaclava, a black coat and gloves and a two-foot long iron bar was found where he was hiding.”

It transpired that a Halifax ATM had also been broken into in nearby  Emersons Way and  £6,180 in £10 notes was stolen, Mr Lowe said. A dark VW Golf found near the Halifax machine with the engine still warm was found to contain a chocolate wrapper bearing Limb’s fingerprints.

Virginia Cornwall, defending, said her client had weaned himself off drugs and expressed remorse for what he had done.

She said: “He’s never been involved in anything like this before. It was not his idea – he agreed to go along.”

Miss Cornwall added that the offence had been motivated by drug use and her client had the prospect of work and was needed by his girlfriend and her young child.

Limb also received a six-month drug rehabilitation requirement as well as a six-month curfew in which he must stay at his address between 9pm  and 7am on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

The court confiscated £105 from him judged to be part of the benefit from his crimes.

The VW car obtained by police was also forfeited and, if sold, proceeds of up to £6,000 will be paid to the Halifax.