Legal News

A prolific bank robber let out on licence from a life sentence is back behind bars after committing raids on banks between April and September 2012.

An Old Bailey court heard that Sean Bradish, 46, and his brother Vincent Bradish, 50, ran the Bradish Boys gang, which specialised in raids on banks, security vans and bingo halls. The gang members wore balaclavas and surgical gloves during raids and went armed with a selection of firearms including pistols, shotguns and revolvers.

They used the proceeds of crime to live a lavish lifestyle and were photographed drinking from bottles of champagne after raids.

Their five-year run of luck ended when one of the gang, Steven Roberts, was arrested by police and turned supergrass.

In 2002, Sean Bradish was given a life sentence after raids on at least 100 banks and building societies. At the time of his sentence, Judge Giles Forrester QC said he should serve a minimum of 13 years and five months before being considered for parole.

His brother Vincent Bradish was sentenced to 22 years.

It was reported at the time that the brothers tried to choose banks with customers in them because they calculated that threatening customers with being taken hostage would persuade staff to hand over any cash.

Between them the Bradish Boys stole £1 million, out of which they spent half-a-million on drugs, cars, Caribbean holidays and leading a champagne lifestyle with women.

Police say the gang raided branches of Thomas Cook’s Foreign Exchange service on at least 25 occasions.

The brothers lived in Kilburn north London and at the time they were arrested claimed that they had been “fitted up” by Roberts.

After being arrested a second time while out on licence, Sean Bradish pleaded guilty to six counts of robbery, one of attempted robbery and seven counts of possessing an imitation firearm with intent.

Among the banks he raided was Lloyds TSB on the Finchley Road in north London, which he raided on three occasions while out on licence.

He also robbed a second branch of Lloyds TSB in Kingsbury – and staged an attempted raid on a branch of NatWest Bank in Cricklewood, northwest London, but the attempted robbery was unsuccessful.

He was arrested after raiding a branch of Barclays Bank in Ickenham in March 2013.

In total, he managed to escape with £40,000 while out on licence.

Bradish is due to be sentenced on Thursday (20/02/14), but Judge Nicholas Cooke QC sitting at the Old Bailey told him that the term would be an automatic life sentence.

At the time of the brothers’ first life sentence, Judge Forrester told them:

“You played for very high stakes and the time has come for you to pay the price.”

Duncan Lewis Criminal Solicitors

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