Prison for ATM robbers who blew up two banks in Wales

South Wales Police released CCTV footage of the incidents

The two men were found guilty of consipiring to cause an explosion likely to endager life, and two counts of burglary.

The first explosion, at Barclays bank on Treforest Industrial Estate Park in Pontypridd on 25 October 2014, was so strong it caused damage estimated at £100,000.

The safe door – which would take around four average-sized people to lift – was blown across the bank foyer and all the doors on the premises were blown off their hinges, even those along the corridor leading away from the blast.

The raiders stole £45,000.

Just over a week later, on 2 November, they attacked the Barclays Bank on Bridgend Industrial Estate in the same way, stealing around £36,000. Police were able to recover DNA from a gas cylinder they left behind.

Russell Bennett and Benjamin Barrett

Bennett and Barrett were charged under the Explosives Act, which dates back to the 1830s, and carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Both men pleaded guilty. Barrett was sentenced to eight and a half years, and Bennett to eight.

Detective Inspector Dan Michel, the senior investigating officer on the case, said: “The recklessness and pure gall of Russell Bennett and Benjamin Barrett was astounding. In pursuit of money, they risked their own lives and of course the life of anybody who may have happened to walk past the premises or even be inside the banks at the time.

“They had no knowledge or control of who could be nearby and no control of the explosion which they caused.”