'Dangerous' kidnapper jailed for 23 years for foiled bank raid

A 'DANGEROUS' career criminal who kidnapped bank staff in a failed attempt to steal £500,000 from a safe where they worked has been sentenced to 23 years in prison.

Michael Dunphy (45), of Barton Road, Hyde, Manchester, was found guilty of four counts of kidnap and two counts of attempted robbery at Sheffield Crown Court yesterday (Tuesday).

Dunphy (pictured) was part of a gang of robbers who tried to take £500,000 from a branch of Barclays at Stag roundabout in November while dressed as police officers.

Dunphy and his gang followed a Barclays employee from her home in a stolen Audi and kidnapped her, her seven-year-old daughter, and two of her colleagues.

He forced two of the bank’s employees to open a safe before fleeing the scene empty-handed minutes before police officers arrived.

Dunphy was sentenced to 18 years in prison which Judge Robert Bartfield extended by five years because he deemed him to be a dangerous person.

Judge Bartfield told Dunphy: "To kidnap a mother and child as you did shows a determination well beyond that of a normal individual or even a normal criminal.

"I was asked to assess your evidence here on the witness stand and my answer to that was chilling, with no sense of responsibility and no thought at all for anybody but yourself."