£1 confiscation orders against crime gang that made £2.6m

James ‘Jimmy’ Sheen was the mastermind behind the Kidlington caravan park-based group that targeted businesses across the south of England in 2019 and 2020.

Sheen, then 37, and members of his gang were locked up for a total of 74 years last May for charges including conspiracy to burgle and conspiracy to commit explosions.

At Oxford Crown Court on Friday (March 24), Recorder John Hardy KC ruled that Sheen, who was out of prison on licence at the time of burglaries for a drive-by shooting, made £903,161.98 from his catalogue of offending.

READ MORE: Bulgarian pleads guilty to conspiracy to handle stolen tractors

Jimmy Loveridge – brought into the group as ‘muscle’ – was ruled to have benefited from his offending to the tune of £917,239.51.

Sheen's 'trusted lieutenant' David Riley, whose name featured in the trial earlier this week of ‘fence’ Hristo Chenchev as the go-between the gang and the Bulgarian buyer of tractors stolen in three raids in May 2020, was said to have made £793,260.72.

Confiscation orders were made against each man on Friday of a nominal sum of just £1.

It reflects the fact that, currently, the men have no assets that could be sold and the proceeds handed over to the Treasury. Prosecutors could return to court in the future if it emerges that there are assets that could be confiscated.

When he jailed the men last year, Judge Michael Gledhill KC said the gang’s ‘audacious’ smash-and-grab raid on the National Horseracing Museum in Newmarket in May 2020 demonstrated the scale of the group’s ambition.

“[That was] to obtain as much money as possible as quickly as possible, avoiding detection by the police and other authorities,” he said.

“You were completely indifferent to the effect of your actions on others, indifferent to the risk of injury from the explosions, indifferent to the cost of repairing the damage, indifferent to the financial loss to the owners of the buildings and the ATM machines.

“You were not the least bit concerned as to the effect of the disruption to businesses, the effect of your crimes on the staff the loss to the insurance companies and the loss of amenities to members of the public.

“You couldn’t care less.

“The attitude of each of you was fully focussed on yourselves.

“Your attitude was ‘what can I make out of the offending and how can I avoid being caught?’”

He added: “Your approach was if it is there to be taken and can be taken we’re entitled to take it.

“That is your approach to life.”

After limited success blowing up cash machines, the gang moved to dragging the ATMs out of stores like the Co-op (pictured) using tow ropes attached to powerful 4x4s Picture: Thames Valley Police

During the trial last year of one of the gang members, Paul Smith, jurors heard how the group enjoyed relatively limited success using acetylene gas to blow up cash machines in Oxfordshire and Berkshire before switching tactics and dragging free-standing ATMs out of convenience stores.

By May 2020, they had switched to stealing high-value tractors and agricultural machinery. That month, the group also stole 10 trophies – including the £75,000 Ascot Gold Vase – during a heist at the Newmarket National Horseracing Museum.

The gang's activities ended in tragedy on June 10, 2021, when Jimmy Loveridge, Paul Smith, Albert Johnson and Rocky Broadway were en route to stage a break-in at the Swan Antiques Centre in Tetsworth when their stolen getaway Mercedes crashed on a rural back road. Mr Broadway was killed in the crash.