Police Say Ram-Raids Devastating East of England Communities
Criminals hit three Cambridgeshire businesses and wrecked a Bedfordshire village shop front in a single week. Police call the attacks organised crime, say night-time offences tend to rise in autumn, and are stepping up patrols in areas they consider vulnerable.
Cambridgeshire Police Detective Chief Inspector Christian O'Brien said ram-raids are devastating communities in the East of England, after criminals hit three Cambridgeshire businesses and destroyed the front of a Bedfordshire village shop within a single week.
"The cash is one element, but the fear, the damage left within the community is something that can't be repaired overnight," O'Brien said.
Organised crime, police say
O'Brien described the attacks as "absolutely seriously organised crime". He said they are "well planned, well orchestrated" and show "a complete disregard to the local community".
Many people can be involved, he said, from stealing vehicles to carry out the attacks, to the raids themselves, to disposing of the money. He worked on the investigation that led to a gang being jailed in 2023 for ram-raiding across Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire.
Police are now increasing patrols in "areas we deem to be vulnerable", O'Brien added.
Targets and timing
Past victims in the region include building societies, banks, convenience stores, post offices and petrol stations. These are premises with cash machines or high-value goods.
Recent examples include a jewellers in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, and a cash machine ripped from a high street wall in Watton, Norfolk. Another cash machine was torn from a funeral directors' building in Halstead, Essex.
Craig Collier, chief operating officer at funeral directors Daniel Robinson & Sons, said it would have been clear to the thieves what the building was.
Ram-raids happen all year round. But O'Brien said: "We do tend to see some uptick in the number of offences at this time of year." He linked part of that to longer nights and more hours of darkness.
In 2023, Cambridgeshire Police backed an "adopt an ATM" scheme run by ATM Watch, an arm of Neighbourhood Watch. It asks businesses and homes around a cash machine to form what police called "an all-seeing, all-hearing protective bubble" around it.
The toll on towns
Hanna Suma, co-owner of HC Jewellers in Biggleswade, was left "very upset and shaking" after thieves repeatedly rammed her shop with a van during the night on October 9. Town mayor Jonathan Wood said the raid was unsettling for residents and the owner. "High Street trading is difficult enough at present without the added problems of theft and robbery," he said.
In Whittlesey, Nationwide is the only banking facility left in the town. Residents and people living nearby, who cannot travel to nearby Peterborough, treat it as a "lifeline".
It was severely damaged in a ram-raid on November 5, the second in three years. Mayor Alex Miscandlon said the first left everyone horrified. After the second, he said, "everyone's shoulders dropped and they said, 'oh my, not again'."
Branch manager David Fenwick said some customers come in and the staff can be the only people they talk to all day. "I don't think [the thieves] realise the damage it does, not just to the staff, but it's also the community here," he said.
