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A gang member who allegedly attacked cash machines pocket-dialled 999 during one of the raids, a court heard.

The group either blew up or tried to blow up ATMs during the spree but ended up empty-handed each time, it was alleged.

However, during one of the attempts, one of the crew members accused of attempting raids in Walsall, Wolverhampton, and Coseley in the West Midlands accidentally activated a feature on his phone to call the emergency services.

As the gang went on trial at Birmingham Crown Court, a prosecutor said CCTV footage from the raid matched the sound recording of the call made to emergency operators, reports Birmingham Live.

Craig Everitt, 43, of Daley Road in Bradley, Wolverhampton, and Matthew Stokes, 34, of Iron Foundary Drive in Coseley, West Midlands, have denied a charge of conspiracy to steal money from cash machines.

Jake Parkes, 24, of Powell Place, also of Bradley, Wolverhampton, has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to burgle.

Timothy Harrington, prosecuting at Birmingham Crown Court, said the gang made six attempts to steal cash from machines in a string of raids during October and November 2018.

The first attack, he said, occurred on October 3 at an ATM in High Street, Walsall.

Four men got out of an Audi, which was on false plates, and attached a hose to a freestanding ATM from the boot of the vehicle, where there was a gas cylinder, said Mr Harrington.

“They ducked behind a car in anticipation of an explosion but they could not cause the machine to explode and left.”

Later the same night the same team, he said, went to a hole in the wall machine at an ASDA in Coseley.

This time they did cause an explosion but failed to get any cash because the part with the money was undamaged in the blast.

A few days later, Mr Harrington said Everitt and Stokes had burgled a house in Sandbach, Cheshire, and had stolen a high performance BMW.

He said the same car was used in subsequent attacks on ATMs.

The court was told the gang went on to attempt to get into two ATMs at Texaco garages in Wolverhampton on October 15 and 16.

Neither raid was successful, the jury were told.

The fifth target, he said, was a machine at a CO-OP in Bloxwich.

It was during this incident Mr Harrington told jurors that Everitt had mistakenly called the emergency services as the group attempted to get into the cash machine.

He said Everitt was using a Nokia phone, and “importantly here he made a mistake.”

Mr Harrington said the phone had a feature that meant the owner could accidentally make a call to the emergency services.

“That is precisely what Everitt’s phone did during this event and of course calls are recorded.

“You do not hear any speech on it but what you can hear matches precisely what we can see on CCTV,” he said.

Mr Harrington said you could hear the sound of gas pumping, sawing and an angle grinder.

He said they were successful in exploding the ATM but, again, were not rewarded for getting to the money inside.

Shortly afterwards the police arrived and the gang made off in the BMW, said Mr Harrington.

He said Everitt had realised his phone had made the call and changed the number to try and avoid detection by the police.

In their final bid to obtain money, the raiders “changed their plan,” it was claimed.

Mr Harrington said in the early hours of November 22, they used a stolen van to smash into Heron Foods in Coseley, causing significant damage.

A strap was attached from the vehicle to a machine.

He said: “They tried to drag it out but it did not work and they fled in the BMW that had been stolen in Sandbach.”

The car, he said, was later burned out, but he went on, “It seems these thieves were extremely greedy, and they took a truck to recover the car for scrap.”

Mr Harrington said when the police arrived, Everitt had given them a “cock and bull story.”

He said that on December 18, 2018, the defendant Parkes had been involved with others in burgling a premises on an industrial estate in Telford that contained things for babies and toddlers.

He said that Stokes had already admitted his part in that offence.

The trial continues.

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