With no eyewitness testimony, DNA, or fingerprints to go on, detectives were forced to search for less conventional evidence to apprehend the vicious thieves.
The identification of a dangerous gang of armed robbers began with extraordinary detective work by the elite Flying Squad of Scotland Yard.
It led to the capture of ten members of a highly organized gang that attacked security officers refilling cash machines in London and elsewhere with firearms, knives, hammers, and crowbars.
In June 2018, two thieves pounced at midnight on guards entering a Nationwide bank in Tooting, south London, and left only a few clues. Detectives began their investigation by sifting through these few traces.
The guards carried £120,000 to deposit into an ATM, the automated teller machine of the bank (ATM).
The thieves donned unremarkable black clothing, body armor, masks, and gloves. They did not leave behind any DNA or fingerprints.
Internal CCTV cameras provided no identifying characteristics. The surveillance cameras outside the bank on High Street captured no images of the criminals or their getaway vehicles.
The lateral door
The bank’s entrance was concealed from surveillance cameras by the parked cash vehicle. Also concealed was a door just adjacent to the bank’s entrance. The cops decided that the robbers must have entered and exited through the other entrance on foot.
The door led to a block of apartments, a supermarket parking lot, and a network of side streets via a fire escape. The location’s CCTV cameras captured the two suspects roaming about at the time of the robbery.
Another camera further away captured their arrival in a dark SUV, but the image quality was poor, the license plate was unreadable, and the manufacturer of the vehicle was unknown.
Detective Constable Stephen O’Connell stated, “It appeared to be an Audi Q7 or a car of similar appearance, however a detailed analysis of the wing mirrors, alloy wheels, bonnet, badge, and grille reveals that it is not an Audi.”
To identify the vehicle, he requested film from all traffic cameras within four kilometers of the bank equipped with automated number plate recognition (ANPR).
DC O’Connell describes how the investigation progressed: “We are convinced that the vehicle is a Skoda Kodiaq SUV, but we cannot read the license plate.
Minutes after the bank robbery, the ANPR camera search identifies a Skoda Kodiaq traveling in a nearby side street.
The Birmingham relationship
The traffic camera captured the license plate of a Skoda Kodiaq posted for sale on AutoTrader from a Birmingham dealership.
DC O’Connell stated, “I speak with the manager there, and he is positive that his car has not been in London; it is currently sitting in his showroom and is locked. He has the house keys at home.
Therefore, the gang must have noticed his advertisement in AutoTrader, since they have cloned the license plate and placed it on another Skoda Kodiaq.
The crew cloned a legitimate license plate from a registered blue Skoda Kodiaq rather than, say, a white Ford Focus in case the car was halted by authorities.
A check of the license plate would reveal that the vehicle was a blue Skoda Kodiaq, which should be sufficient to quell any suspicions.
A more thorough inspection of the gang’s Skoda would disclose the incorrect license plate, but this was a calculated risk.
The Flying Squad then combed through local crime records to locate a stolen Skoda Kodiaq. They had planned to search back two months but discovered the stolen item in Wimbledon two weeks before the robbery.
ANPR cameras captured the vehicle being driven for an hour after it was stolen, but then it vanished.
The Prague relationship
Police contacted Skoda’s headquarters in Prague, the Czech Republic’s capital, where the business maintains a record of every vehicle it produces.
Skoda provided detectives with the unique code for the satellite navigation system of the stolen vehicle. The code enables the satellite navigation system to connect to telecommunications masts, similar to a mobile phone.
Detectives requested the vehicle’s data history from satnav’s telecoms provider.
The data wasn’t as exact as they had anticipated, but it did indicate that the satnav was turned off near Wimbledon, close to where the Skoda was taken.
Going underground
The squad inundated the area with undercover cops, but they were unable to locate the parked automobile. Then they knocked on the concierge’s door at a new apartment building with a guarded, closed underground parking garage.
In the parking lot was a blue Skoda Kodiaq with a different license plate from the one used in the crime. A check of the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) or chassis number inside the car revealed that it was the Skoda that had been reported stolen.
“Therefore, we ponder, why have they changed the license plates again? They have not simply abandoned this vehicle. They have parked it and re-plated it, so they intend to use it again.
“Instead of immediately seizing it and attempting to obtain DNA and fingerprints from it, we will leave it there and observe it to see who comes to it.” But they were not required to wait.
Not quite clever enough
When they checked the most current car park surveillance footage, they observed a man drive in, park in resident’s bay 248, and then up the stairs to the apartments above.
A check with the building manager revealed that the resident of parking space 148 was a man named David Tesfaalem living in apartment 30.
DC O’Connell stated, “Upon examining the name David Tesfaalem, we discover that he has prior convictions for armed robbery.”
The group was intelligent, but not quite intelligent enough.
A massive monitoring operation on Tesfaalem eventually led authorities to the other gang members, who were responsible for stopping the violent robberies.
