A Spalding man who is on the run after being involved in stealing more than £34,000 from a bank has been ordered to pay back almost £37,000.
Kevin Smith (29), of Clay Lake, was one of three gang members told to pay back a total of £109,000 for their part in a ram raid on a bank in Kimbolton, Cambridgeshire, in September 2012.
Smith, Ebby Hall (45), of Peterborough, and Ivan Hutchinson (45), of Huntingdon, were each ordered to pay back £36,658.33 by Peterborough Crown Court at a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing on January 16.
The same court previously jailed Smith for five years and three months in July 2013 after he admitted to conspiring to commit burglary and conspiracy to steal motor vehicles.
But he is currently on the run after escaping from Suffolk’s Hollesley Bay last September and a Suffolk Constabulary spokesman told the Lincolnshire Free Press that he is still at large.
The £109,000 court bill includes £34,190 stolen by the gang after ramming through a wall of Barclays Bank, Kimbolton, with a stolen JCB digger, ripping out a cash machine and loading it onto a stolen car.
Also included is £75,785 representing the total value of vehicles stolen by the gang, one of them a Land Rover stolen from Crowland in September 2012.
It was later found, along with the cash machine and car, burned out about eight miles away from Kimbolton.
After Smith and the other gang members were jailed, DCI Kevin Vanterpool of Cambridgeshire Constabulary said: “While the method of ripping out the cash machine appeared to be crude, an exceptional amount of pre-planning went into identifying and acquiring the vehicles to be used in the offence and subsequent getaway.
“The gang hid their identity through false number plates, destroying evidence and hiding the money.”
A Proceeds of Crime Act hearing involving a fourth gang member, Richard Clues (60), of Peterborough, is due to be held next month to decide whether he has to pay back a share of the £109,000.
Economic Crime Unit manager Paul Prosser said: “This case shows that we will pursue criminals to ensure they don’t make a penny from their criminality.”