A crime Britain believed it had conquered decades ago has returned in a frightening new guise – with overwhelmed police forces struggling to keep pace.
Organised gangs are using stolen vans, 4x4s, motorbikes and even heavy construction machinery to smash into shops, supermarkets, banks and jewellers across the UK in brute force ram-raids.
Once dismissed as a crude smash-and-grab crime of the 1980s, ram-raiding has developed into a smooth, high-impact tactic favoured by gangs who are usually long gone before officers arrive.
Police forces nationwide are now battling what insiders describe as a ‘relentless’ wave of attacks – not restricted to inner cities but rural villages too.
Experts warn ram-raiding has become one of the most efficient – and most difficult to stop – crimes in Britain.
Kevin Moore, former head of CID at Sussex Police, said the reasons behind the surge were stark.
He said: ‘There is an obvious reason for this escalation in so-called ram raid offences.
‘The rewards are high, and the risks of being caught are low.
‘The ability of the police to respond quickly, even to emergency calls, has decreased in recent years, due solely to the fact that front-line policing has been decimated due to a shortage of numbers.
‘Additionally, because such offences do not involve violence against the person, they tend to attract less severe prison sentences.’
There are no official national figures – but a glance at police appeals and local newspaper reports paints a gloomy picture, backed up by CCTV footage showing brazen raids unfolding in seconds.
In one incredible incident last October, residents in Milton Keynes filmed a telehandler being used to pull an ATM clean out of a supermarket wall.
The weighty machinery smashed through the shop front, dragged the cash machine into the street, hoisted it into the air and dropped it into the rear of a waiting pick-up truck.
Masked thieves then fled, leaving the telehandler and dumping rubble scattered across the road.
Karolina Oswiecimska, who filmed the ram raid, said: ‘My daughter heard cars and after a minute, she heard something like a chainsaw.
‘When she looked, they were already ripping out the ATM.
‘She called me, and I started recording. My partner called the police.
‘Everything was going so fast. They were there maybe for five to seven minutes.’
In nearby Towcester, raiders this month repeated a similar feat – stealing a telehandler before driving it to a nearby Nationwide branch.
Once there, they used the stolen construction vehicle to rip a cash machine from the wall, destroying the branch’s facade.
Northamptonshire Police said the gang then lowered the ATM into a blue Mercedes Vito van, which had a hole cut into the roof specifically to accommodate the machine, before fleeing the scene.
Meanwhile, in Retford, Notts, CCTV footage caught the moment a stolen digger was used in a botched ram raid on a Spar convenience store.
The offenders, John Charles and Reuben Reynolds, smashed through the shop’s front wall in the early hours of March 14 2023, activating alarms and leaving bricks and rubble strewn across the pavement.
Both men were incarcerated for four years, as of August 2024.
Jewellery stores have also been targeted with increasing boldness by ram raiders.
Alarming footage from a historic shopping arcade in Bognor Regis shows a stolen Range Rover sneaking into position before its driver revs sharply, yanking the steel security grille clean off a jeweller’s shop.
The force was so violent that it smashed the windows of a neighbouring business.
Within moments, robbers were inside, smashing display cabinets and grabbing £40,000 of gold, silver and luxury watches in a slick raid lasting scarcely four minutes.
No arrests have yet been made following the November heist.
In another case, phone footage this month captured a motorbike-mounted gang descending on a Rolex boutique in affluent Knightsbridge in West London.
Armed with crowbars, they threatened staff, scooped up high-value watches and fled in under three minutes.
Images show smashed glass cabinets and one motorbike evidently dumped inside the Bucherer Rolex Boutique at One Hyde Park.
Daylight attacks are also becoming increasingly common.
In March 2024, ram raiders smashed into a post office in east London and stole a cash machine – before struggling to load it into the boot of their getaway car.
In the video, three hooded guys are seen hauling the ATM off the Harold Hill shopfront using a rope that is tied to a vehicle, ripping a portion of the building with it.
They then try to open the machine with an angle grinder before struggling to pack it into the back of a getaway car and fleeing the scene.
The scourge is not limited to cities, but towns and villages, where the local ATM is often a crucial lifeline.
In Olney, Buckinghamshire, thieves used machinery to smash into a Nationwide branch for the second time.
The heavy vehicle was driven straight into the building in October, targeting the area where the ATM was installed and leaving the listed building’s facade torn wide open.
In July 2018, the front of the former Barclays in the market town was nearly destroyed when a JCB digger was driven through the front, and thieves made off with a cash machine.
In Hoyland, near Rotherham, ram-raiders struck this month for the second time – snatching cigarettes and leaving a huge bill for damage.
Criminals used two cars to smash their way through shutters on the front of the Cloughfields Convenience store to grab cigarettes worth an estimated £3,000 to £4,000.
Shopkeeper Asim Sehzad told how he was left facing a £20,000 repair bill.
In Kidsgrove, Staffs, a JCB was used to smash into a Co-op store – destroying posts used to discourage ram-raiders.
Co-ops in Billingham, Lincs; Newent, Glos, and Chandler’s Ford, Hants have also been targeted in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, in Wittering, Cambs, an excavator was used to plough into the community shop, pulling out the ATM.
Even the smallest communities are not being spared.
In Cheddar, Somerset – a village better known for tourism than violent crime – masked gangs last year targeted three shops in four different attacks.
Shop owner Elaine Moodie was left devastated after up to £20,000 worth of Jellycat toys were robbed in minutes from her The Gorge Bear Company store.
CCTV shows thieves ramming the door of the property with a vehicle before stuffing a heap of the fluffy toys into a bag before fleeing.
Ms Moodie said: We’ve worked so hard to build the business up to this level, and to have someone come in and do that to us is just heart-wrenching.
‘We have no idea (where they’ve come from), we don’t think that they’re local, but we do think they did their homework before the thefts.
‘You don’t expect it in a beautiful place like Cheddar.’
In Addingham, West Yorkshire, two women secretly filmed a telehandler smashing through the wall of a village Co-op just before 2 am last February.
Their whispered commentary, as the gang struggled to make their getaway with the heavy machine, revealed their disbelief at the destruction.
One gasped: ‘Oh my God, they are bringing half the building down.’
Two suspects were subsequently arrested by West Yorkshire Police.
While the spate of ram-raids continues to shock communities across Britain, police insist that some of those responsible are being caught – and jailed.
Tony Smith, a serial burglar, is one such criminal. In only a few weeks, he stole seven cars and five ATMs during a blatant cross-country crime spree.
Smith, 26, of Cambridgeshire, was incarcerated for seven years and six months in November after admitting to raids in Dorset, Hampshire, Leicestershire, Shropshire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire.
Another raider, Kayne Palmer, 33, was locked up after a violent ram-raid left terrified shop owners trapped upstairs as a stolen van smashed into their business below.
Palmer, 33, was caught on camera ramming into Bestwood Hill Food and Wine in Nottingham using a stolen vehicle in October 2023.
He was seen stealing £8,000 worth of cigarettes and booze.
CCTV also captured the moment a stolen pickup truck was used in a ram raid at a Tesco Express store in Northwich, Cheshire.
Driver Robin Vaughan stole more than £3,000 in cash as well as a bag of parcels at around 12.40 am on June 16 last year.
The 35-year-old of Lyon Close, St Helens, caused more than £35,000 worth of damage to the store and was incarcerated for three years.
We don’t appear to have a politician with the persuasive power to stop these individuals, and apparently, we don’t have enough police numbers, but there appear to be enough officers when a pub needs raiding, or when police arrest people at 3 am over something they said on a parent’s WhatsApp group. It’s not about numbers; it’s how those numbers are deployed, and that is down to a lack of leadership at the highest levels.
There are CCTV cameras everywhere, so when does a JCB driving down the road not start raising suspicion?
The UK has turned into a soft touch with no deterrents, and because there are no deterrents, it’s hardly surprising and not unexpected that we now have this vile behaviour, and our police are too busy policing protests, rioting and hurty words.
Our police are not powerless to stop these people; they just can’t be bothered investigating because it’s too much hard work. If our spineless police force can’t cope or just don’t want to do anything, bring in the Home Guard.
The whole of the UK has become a laughing stock, and it would be laughable if it weren’t so serious. Our government is allowing it to happen – it’s time for a change, folks!
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 