1:02pm Monday 17th May 2010
By Sam Chadderton
THE prosecution of an East Lancashire gang jailed for two armed robberies was the first in the country to use DNA coding of bank notes.
Dean Farrell, David Evans, Colin McCash, Simon Ginn and James Mulholland were sentenced to at least 50 years on Friday for their parts in two raids in Preston Old Road, Cherry Tree, Blackburn and Thornton Cleveleys in 2008.
McCash, 32, of Spencer Street, Accrington, was caught on CCTV spending dye-stained £20 notes, stolen from the Blackburn robbery, at a petrol station in Accrington.
Police said 'groundbreaking' technology helped put the case together.
Tony Woodward, of Applied DNA Sciences (ADNAS) said: “ADNAS creates unique taggers. They are covert invisible codes, created from botanical plant material.
“For Loomis we provide a unique DNA code for every cash-in-transit box. It goes into the boxes where the dye sits.
"If the dye is deployed, the DNA is deployed and gets on to the notes.
“Once the DNA is on there, no matter how much washing is done by the criminals to try and remove the dye, the DNA remains and lasts for 350 years.
“In this particular case we were asked by Lancashire Police to authenticate some notes they had recovered.
"Our results proved conclusively the DNA code from the cashbox in question was the signature we found on those notes.
“This was the first time notes were recovered and submitted to us for testing.”
There are approximately 1,000 Loomis boxes in the UK.
"If they are broken into, or not opened in a set short amount of time, the dye inside the box explodes.
The majority of the £70,000 total the gang stole in the two robberies has never been recovered.
According to Detective Superintendent Neil Hunter, the notes were so tightly packed together by the gang, the dye only stained the egdes of many of the notes.
He said: “Somebody has had a good time on it or it could still be buried somewhere.
“If you’re going out at night with cash into nightclubs, pubs, casinos, where perhaps the lighting isn’t as good, these notes wouldn’t stick out.”
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