Stag bank robbers "posed as police", court told

A MAN has denied being involved in an operation to steal £500,000 from a bank by kidnapping two of its employees and forcing them to open a safe.

Michael Dunphy (45), of HMP Doncaster, is on trial at Sheffield Crown Court accused of four counts of kidnap and three counts of attempted robbery.

He is said to have been part of a gang of robbers who tried to take money from a branch of Barclays at Stag roundabout in November.

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Three of the would-be robbers followed a Barclays employee from her home in a stolen Audi, Mr Nicholas Campbell, prosecuting, told the court.

“The Audi had been fitted with blue flashing lights and, over their dark clothing, they wore hi-vis vests to support the illusion that they were police officers,” Mr Campbell told the court.

The bank employee dropped her teenage daughter off at school and, as she pulled away, the stolen Audi blocked her path.

The woman and her younger daughter, aged seven, ended up in the stolen Audi with two of the robbers as another robber drove her Volvo in convoy behind them, Mr Campbell told the court.

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“By this time, it was all too clear to the bank employee that the men were not police officers at all,” he said.

The men were planning to steal £500,000 from a safe at the bank and needed a second employee to help them open the safe.

They waited for the second employee, Zoe Copley, to arrive at work by bus and put her in the Audi with her colleague and colleague's daughter.

The schoolgirl remembered one of the men telling Zoe that if she did not get in the car, she “would be shot”.

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Mr Campbell said security footage would be shown to the jurors of the women giving the robbers access to the bank.

The women each entered a unique code to gain access to the safe but had to wait ten minutes for it to open.

“It was during the wait that it became clear to all in that back room that the police had been called,” Mr Campbell told the court.

“That was enough for the robbery to be called off and all the robbers made their escape.”

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Judge Robert Bartfield told the jury of seven men and five women that Dunphy would deny playing any part in the kidnapping and it would be up to the prosecution to prove its case.

“As for the attempted robbery, his defence will be that he was acting under duress and that he was forced to act this out,” he said.

The trial continues.