Lancashire bank robbery

At around 1.30pm on Friday 27 February 2009, two masked robbers broke into the Rishton branch of HSBC. They smashed through the roof at the back of the building, gaining access to the service area. The raid took place seconds after the bank had received a large cash delivery and the robbers got away with a significant amount of money.

Rishton is a quiet town of about 10,000 people. The branch of HSBC is a converted terraced house in the middle of the main road. In a small community like this, an incident of this nature is unheard of.

At the time of the robbery there were two members of staff working in the bank. The female cashier was dealing with the cash delivery whilst the male cashier was serving the queue of customers that was building up during a busy lunchtime.

Just as the moment the cash in transit man made the last drop off, the cashiers heard a loud bang behind them. The male cashier went to look at what it was, he saw two figures coming through the roof. He instantly realised that a robbery was taking place. A figure dressed all in black, his face covered with a balaclava marched over to the cashiers demanding to know where the money was. As the cash drop-off had only just been made it was all there, directly in front of them.

They had come through the old, slanted, tiled roof over the back door. Having prepared the roof in the days before, all the robbers had to do was remove the tiles and kick through the ceiling, nine feet off the ground. They landed a few feet away from the cashiers and the money.

The cashiers were powerlessly trapped behind the glass that was supposed to protect them. As one robber put the money in a holdall the other forcefully made the cashiers turn away from them as they carried out the crime. The offenders emptied the cash drawers by the till and ran out the back door. The entire robbery lasted just over a minute.

The robbers got away in a black A-Class Mercedes they had parked in the alleyway behind the bank. There is a witness who saw an Asian male help the robbers get into the car and leave the scene. The getaway car drove through the streets of Rishton to a white, transit van parked in another alleyway nearby. There the robbers changed vehicle and set fire to the Mercedes.

They pulled the van out of the alleyway cutting up two cars. The van then headed for a main road between Blackburn and Rishton but this is where the trail goes cold. Police want to know which way the van went.

The robbers had been planning the raid for a long time. One witness saw a man in the back of a van filming the bank, from across the street, three weeks earlier. There have also been other robberies in the local area carried out in a similar fashion.

• • A witness in one of the cars that was cut-up described the person driving the van as a male, white in his early 30's, slim build and slim features. The male had dark brown hair and was wearing a short-sleeved royal blue polo shirt.

• • Both men were described as about 5ft 11in with North Western accents.

• • The witness who saw the accomplice described him as male, 5ft 6in tall, Asian appearance, short dark hair, medium build, and wearing orange / brown sweatshirt.

• • Where did the white van go after it turned into Station Road? Where you in the other car that the van cut-up? Do you know which direction it went?

• • The Mercedes had been stolen 27 days earlier. Where had it been in that time? The car's original number plate was MT06 LSE. It had a reproduced one during the robbery, YD05 BRL.

• • The robbers used a ladder to get onto the roof. Do you recognise the ladder? Do you know where it was before the robbery?

Lancashire Police

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