Rotherham bank raid trial told defence "like something from a gangster movie"

Judge Robert Bartfield was summarising the evidence for the jury in the trial at Sheffield Crown Court of 45-year-old Michael Dunphy.

Dunphy, of HMP Doncaster, denies four counts of kidnap and three counts of attempted robbery.

He is accused of being one of a gang who tried to take £500,000 from a branch of Barclays at Stag roundabout in November.

Three of the would-be robbers are said to have followed a Barclays employee from her home in a stolen Audi and kidnapped her, her seven-year-old daughter, and her colleagues Zoe Copley and Jo Blakey.

They are said to have forced two of the bank's employees to open a safe before fleeing the scene empty-handed minutes before police officers arrived.

Dunphy’s case is that he was facilitating the attempted robbery under duress and he had no knowledge of the kidnapping.

Judge Robert Bartfield told the jury while summing up the evidence: “The prosecution say his [Dunphy’s] defence of duress is like something straight out of a low-budget gangster movie.”

Dunphy claims to have been kidnapped in the weeks leading up to the attempted robbery and told to come up with £500,000 while being shown a shallow grave at gunpoint.

The prosecution say that Dunphy was the man who led the staff into the bank disguised as a police officer while wearing a wig — a person referred to in the trial as “man number one”.

Judge Bartfield said: “The prosecution say that the evidence that he is man number one is overwhelming.”

Summing up the defence case, Judge Bartfield told jurors that Dunphy claimed to have come from a world far removed from them — “gangland Manchester”.

He added: “There's always somebody above your level to whom you are subordinate or are in fear of.”

Dunphy’s case was that he had offended a gang leader connected to Paul Brady — the man he was convicted of kidnapping and killing in 2009, Judge Bartfield said.

Brady was an operative of the gang leader, who was referred to in the trial as “Mr Big”, and Dunphy was “always going to be a target later on”.

Dunphy’s case was that because Brady had been killed, he was being held responsible for the disappearance of cocaine worth £500,000, Judge Bartfield told the court.

“In any event [says Dunphy], why would somebody who is in a good, strong relationship and good employment want to be involved in something like this?” he said.

Dunphy claims to have been kidnapped in October last year by some men in an underground car park, Judge Bartfield told the court.

A hood was put over his head and he was told to “get on the floor”.

Judge Bartfield told the court said Dunphy’s case was “he was thrown into a van, he was afraid, and he thought he was going to die”.

“The van drove down the motorway and eventually on to some grass by the motorway.

“The doors opened and he was dragged onto his knees. The bag was pulled off.”

Dunphy saw a man holding a rifle and another man holding a handgun, neither of whom Dunphy recognised, Judge Bartfield told the court.

He was shown a shallow grave and one of the men was wearing a balaclava.

Dunphy claimed that Mr Big told him over the phone that he wanted £500,000 from him — which he took to be a reference to the £500,000-worth of cocaine lost in the Brady kidnapping.

He later suggested targeting Barclays at Stag roundabout to Mr Big as a potential way of recouping the £500,000 and that he would supply the premises and the vehicle.

The jury in the case retired to consider its verdict yesterday afternoon and resumed deliberations today.