Accused explains evidence found at scene of Kirton raid

THE man accused of two ATM ram-raids, in which approximately £90,000 was stolen, explained why forensic evidence to link him to both crimes had been found.

Shane Delaney (37), of Lark Rise, Scotter, is alleged to have used a JCB digger to rip a cash machine from the HSBC bank at Kirton in Lindsey last November and an ATM from the Co-op at Misterton in August 2007.

Delaney, who denies two burglaries, two offences of vehicle taking and two counts of money laundering, is currently standing trial at Hull Crown Court.

Yesterday he was asked by defending barrister Edward Bindloss to explain how a cigarette end carrying his DNA was found in a Ford Transit tipper truck used in the Misterton raid.

Delaney said he and his wife Amy came across a pile of scrap metal while out walking their dog at a derelict farm near Messingham. He was banned from driving so asked a friend called Gerard Langton if he would hire a vehicle so they could remove the sheets of zinc and sell them.

Mr Langton, who came from South Yorkshire, hired a Ford Transit tipper and drove across to North Lincolnshire. He, Delaney and another man then loaded up the vehicle and took it back to Delaney's address.

He said a cigarette he smoked in the vehicle must have still been there when someone carried out the attack on the Co-op. Michael Cranmer-Brown, prosecuting, asked him if it was 'just a coincidence' one of his cigarette butts was found in the cab of a vehicle used afterwards in a ram-raid.

Delaney conceded the hired vehicle must have been the one used in the crime. But, he said: "I have not got anything to hide. It was nothing whatsoever to do with me."

Speaking of the forensic evidence linking him to the raid on the Kirton bank, Delaney said he had been in Laughton Woods with his wife and her children when he came across the JCB and the Toyota pick-up truck.

He said he had climbed into both vehicles, looking for something to steal. He found tobacco in the cab of the digger and rolled himself a cigarette. He then took a camera and an electric drill from the pick-up. These, the court heard, were later recovered from his home address.

He told jurors he had been at home drinking and taking drugs with two friends on the night of the HSBC raid.

The trial continues.