Episode 15 The Wanted

-Good morning, it's Greater Manchester Police. Does Poppy Murray live here?

-Yeah.

All right, we've got a warrant to search the premises.

Who's that who's in the bed? Is that Arran Crossan?

-Who are you?

-Who are you?

-Are you Arran Crossan?

From the Serious Organised Crime Group,

you're under arrest on suspicion of robbery at the Yorkshire Bank

in Heywood on the 12th of June.

Every day in the UK,

the police are on the hunt for known and suspected criminals.

Get back from the door!

They're armed with warrants, and big red keys.

The Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire forces

have granted exclusive access to their raids.

Police!

Their officers are wearing special equipment

to give you a cop's-eye view,

and bring you closer to the action than ever before.

What's your name?

Britain's streets are a battleground.

On one side are the men and women fighting to keep us safe.

And on the other are the wanted.

OK, mate, let's go.

The offence under investigation surrounds a bank robbery.

One of the males shouted, "Get what you can."

The males started grabbing the items,

placed them in a holdall that they brought with them,

took two safe deposit boxes that belong to customers at the bank

and three tins containing cash from the cash customer tills at the bank.

Anthony Morrison is a violent bank robber and career criminal.

He's just confessed to an armed robbery

at a Yorkshire Bank in Manchester.

But the rest of his gang remain at large.

Inside Morrison's home, the police discovered keys to a stolen sports car...

..a balaclava mask...

...thousands of pounds in banknotes,

And a staff name badge.

Police believe Morrison is part of a team for whom armed robbery is a way of life.

In their latest job, they raided a Manchester bank, terrorising the staff.

They were cutting bars upstairs on security windows,

they was then getting entry to the premises by breaking a window,

forcing entry, and once in the premises they were duressing staff.

To obtain getaway vehicles for the crimes,

it's suspected the gang have been targeting innocent people in their homes.

They'll identify a car, usually a high-powered performance car,

usually a German Audi or a BMW or suchlike.

They would steal that by way of aggravated burglary -

that's basically going into a dwelling armed with weapons, wearing balaclavas.

Quite a harrowing, quite a serious crime.

You put false number plates on it,

all in preparation for when they're ready to do the robbery.

They're organised, they are prolific, they're not bothered

about the violence they use to get cars off people.

They're going into banks, they're threatening people.

I have no doubt, if they would have continued,

they would probably have started to hurt people.

They want arresting, they want convicting and they want

locking up for a long time, because they're dangerous people.

The specialist team assigned to capturing the rest of the gang

are known as the Serious Organised Crime Group.

They regularly hunt down Greater Manchester's most dangerous criminals.

In order to get evidence against these people,

you have to go that extra mile.

You have to look at it,

have an area of expertise in certain areas such as phones, surveillance etc.

And it's only by putting time,

effort and resources into it that you will capture them.

OK, morning. Thanks for turning up, everybody.

This morning we're going to do two Section Eight pace warrants.

One is in response to an investigation into a bank robbery in Haywood at the

Yorkshire Bank on the 12th of June this year.

Detective Roy Storey is leading this morning's operation to arrest another

suspected member of Anthony Morrison's gang.

Niall Kiernan is a close friend of Morrison's,

and he isn't afraid to use force to get what he wants.

If they have to use violence, they will do.

They don't give any thought to the safety and the wellbeing

of the people that they are targeting.

And they will use any amount of violence

in order to achieve their objectives,

and that is to steal other people's money,

it's as simple as that.

-Thanks, Roy.

-Let's go get them.

The team are heading to Kiernan's house in the Middleton area.

They've managed to link him to the bank robbery from the evidence obtained

in Anthony Morrison's flat.

With regards to Kiernan, we had evidence of DNA on clothing,

balaclavas and gloves,

that was found in the attic with the stolen money from the bank robbery.

With a potentially violent suspect, the team have to be prepared.

Niall Kiernan has a history of smashing into people's premises.

KNOCKING AND BANGING

This morning, officers are ready to smash into his.

Police, open the door!

Police, open the door.

The door is coming in.

It's coming, it's coming, it's coming.

Open the door, quickly!

Step back, police from Greater Manchester.

Who else is in the address? Who else is in the address?

-I've got a son upstairs.

-Who else?

-Niall's upstairs?

-Niall's upstairs. Niall's upstairs.

Don't go upstairs, please. Come in here, love.

All right, pal. Sit on the bed.

-What's your name?

-Mine?

-What's your name?

-Niall.

-Niall, you're under arrest on suspicion of robbery, OK?

At the Yorkshire Bank on the 12th of June 2014.

You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence

if you do not mention, when questioned,

something which you later rely on in court.

Anything that you do say may be given as evidence.

Do you understand? Right, mate,

where's your clothes that you're putting on?

When was the last time you were arrested?

'Whilst we are there in the address,

'he's insistent he wants to go to the toilet.'

He were being co-operative, so we thought we'd let him use the toilet.

However, when we do that, we have to be mindful of the fact

he may try and dispose of property, drugs, etc.

Evidence in the case.

So we always get someone to escort him to the toilet.

And it's not a very pleasant thing, watching someone go to the toilet,

but on this occasion we did.

Rick?

Do you want to... Somebody get a stick of some sort.

I know it's a bit of an odd request.

Yes, just so that I can... Hold on.

The check of the lavatory before Kiernan's used it brings results.

Inside the toilet bowl, an unusual deposit.

I don't know, I don't know.

Somebody throw us a bag and a tag.

As stealing fast cars is an intrinsic part of Kiernan's criminal

operation, this BMW key could prove to be vital evidence.

Niall Kiernan's in the address, he was currently arrested.

Once he's taken from the address

we're going to conduct a search of the premises.

As Kiernan goes off to custody,

the team find even more evidence to suggest he is involved in a serious

and organised crime gang.

When we further searched the house,

we found user manuals to tracking devices.

And they were small tracking devices you get at spy shops,

you're able to put into, I don't know, bags or on cars etc.

And you're able to track the movement of those items.

So it shows the sophisticated nature of this group.

This wasn't just an ad hoc group of criminals

who went out on the spur of the moment committing crime.

These were people who were planned, organised.

At Central Park Police Station,

Kiernan's curious to know what led the police to arrest him today.

It's what we do, mate. Nothing about it particularly there.

Why? Should there be a reason why we've come today?

He was taken by surprise.

He was asking why we were there, what we were doing there, etc.

And I asked him for various fake reasons.

That's done firstly to say they're not guilty

and they've done nothing wrong.

And it's also to try and get information out of us,

find out what evidence we've got.

Because sometimes officers will tell them what evidence we've got,

and then that allows them to start planning what they're subsequently

going to say in the interview.

In custody, Kiernan is officially questioned

regarding the evidence that's been found.

Why would one person have nine different mobile phone numbers

in such a short period of time over a few months?

You're arrested today now on suspicion of conspiracy to commit robbery.

That's what we're interviewing you about.

So is that what these numbers are for?

These are numbers that you used to speak to your co-conspirators

to plan and arrange different crimes.

Tell me about that.

We then start introducing evidence that we've got throughout it.

So we introduce evidence of DNA on clothing, which is recovered from the address,

which is the same as the ones that the offenders were worn.

And then they start coming up with convoluted stories then.

And he basically come up with an account where they basically said,

I've been round the address, this flat where Anthony Morrison lived

and basically touched everything and there was nothing he didn't touch.

So that's how he was trying to explain these items and explain

the evidence what we was putting before him.

The Crown Prosecution Service agreed that, like Morrison,

Kiernan should be remanded in prison

while the team carry on with their investigation.

Their next step is to focus on the car used in the crime.

The gang made their getaway from the bank robbery

using a stolen Audi vehicle,

the key for which was found during the raid

at Anthony Morrison's address.

When we took that key to an Audi garage and had it examined,

they were able to tell us what time

that vehicle was last started and that

it was started some 20 minutes or so before the offence, I think it was.

So therefore the indication was the engine was running

whilst the robbery was taking place.

Now, it's unlikely that people would drive up to do a robbery in a

£40,000 sports car, leave the car with the engine running

whilst they did the robbery, because the chances are when they come out

the vehicle wouldn't be there any more.

So the indication was there was

a third person waiting with the vehicle,

waiting with the engine running whilst the robbery was taking place,

and that's how we established there were three people involved.

Police believe that third person is 24-year-old Arran Crossan.

He's a known associate of both Morrison and Kiernan,

and officers strongly suspect he was driving their getaway car.

Detective Storey is on the way to an address

where Crossman's believed to be staying.

We do believe he's working in the Midlands and he commutes

early hours of Monday morning and then stays down there the week

and comes back on a Friday.

So we're hoping to get him this morning before he sets off for work.

Yeah, it's up here on the left.

Police. Open the door, please.

Hello, police. How are you?

-All right.

-We've got a warrant, OK?

-Who else is in the address, love?

-What?

-Who else is in the address?

-Just me.

-Where's your boyfriend?

-He doesn't live here.

'We executed the search warrant.'

It would appear we've missed him. He's set off for work last night,

so we're just going to search the address anyway.

She says he does stay there infrequently, and we'll see what we can come up with.

Back at the Serious Organised Crime headquarters,

the team meet to discuss the developments in the case

and plan their next move in the operation to

find Arran Crossan.

Arran Crossan wasn't at home,

which was no great surprise, really, because we were aware that he's been

working in the Birmingham area.

We then went over with regards to... Myself, to travel down to Birmingham

and we made contact with the company that employs him.

To cut a long story short, we got halfway there,

spoke to his foreman or his supervisor,

who stated that he'd received a phone call from his mother,

and as a result of that he'd set off back to Manchester,

because he was aware the police had been round to his girlfriend's address.

We think they're best mates, don't we,

so he's going to want to find out what's happening to Kiernan first.

I can try and make contact with him, see if we can go see him.

If he's going to answer his phone,

see if he'll negotiate and hand himself in.

Then we can deal with him.

Well, let's crack on with that, then we'll regroup later.

-All right.

-Thank you very much, everyone.

PHONE DIALLING

Detective Storey attempts to get hold of the wanted man by phone.

No, his phone's switched off. The number we've got for him is switched off.

The next step is, we'll keep trying the number and, I'm sure...

We've left our number. I'm sure, perhaps not today,

but he'll be wondering how his friend, Kiernan, is getting on in custody.

Once he's found out the information he requires,

no doubt he'll make contact with us to arrange to come in and be interviewed.

Are they good friends?

Yeah, they're very close friends.

There has been orders previously for them, court orders not to associate.

But they are very close friends.

With the hunt for Crossan on hold,

the team move on to research the origin of the BMW keys found in the

lavatory at his close friend Niall Kiernan's address.

-Have both cars gone?

-Possibly.

-Just click "vehicle" there.

...motor vehicle.

It's been used in a job, that.

The key we recovered from the toilet bowl at Kiernan's home address,

some enquiries about the BMW,

and that relates to a BMW 330, outstanding,

stolen by way of a burglary,

overnight 27th, 28th of July, just gone.

There's two vehicles stolen. Two BMWs stolen.

One's been recovered in the Reddish area.

The one that we've got a key for now is outstanding.

So, as I mentioned earlier,

it could well be that they're in the preparation of another offence and

they require a vehicle for that.

Further investigation eventually leads to the discovery of this stolen car.

These are false plates, which were on the BMW, and I'll send them off for fingerprint treatments,

see if there's any fingerprints on them.

Well, we're hoping to open it and see if there's anything else in the

vehicle, but, yeah, these are just the false ones at the moment.

It's crime scene investigator Louise Hark's job to look for fingerprints

and additional evidence that might link the stolen vehicle

back to the criminal gang.

Glove marks off the...

On the inside of the window there.

Probably these type of gloves.

Them bits there. So they've probably been wearing gloves while they've

been driving, or when they've stolen the vehicle.

They steal cars because they can't be associated with that vehicle.

Quite often, they'll be high-powered cars

in case they need to try and get away from police.

And they can treat them as they wish.

If they want to burn them out afterwards,

they don't suffer any financial loss,

and that's why they use these cars, stolen cars.

Next, the team have to undertake some painstaking research on a large number of mobile phones.

These were seized during the raids at Anthony Morrison and Niall Kiernan's homes.

More than 18 months old.

These are throwaway Samsungs, aren't they?

Try those three Samsungs first.

We're trying to identify handsets that the...

The numbers that we're interested in on the day of the robbery,

that have since been dropped,

sometimes we can identify from a handset or SIM card that's been in it.

That's really where the hard work starts,

once they're arrested and we have to start building a case against them.

Sometimes, it's great to have lots of evidence,

lots of strands of evidence, but we've still got to prove it

and obtain that evidence by way of witness testimony and suchlike,

and then put that in a prosecution file and present it at court.

-So this is recovered after the other job at Oldham?

-That's recovered on the 8th of May.

-And has that been forensically matched with the Oldham job, do we know?

-Not as yet.

As part of the investigation,

officers also have to check out any alibis the suspects have provided.

Basically said that he's alibied insomuch as

he took this vehicle to this breaker's yard

where we're going doing this warrant.

The premises is in Middleton.

Detective Sergeant Dave Eaves is en route to check out the account given by Niall Kiernan.

They've used stolen cars.

It's not beyond the realms of possibility

that stolen cars may have been through a premises like this.

And then there's the issue of the people in custody.

He's using this place as an alibi.

This is it. This is the place.

Kiernan has told officers that he was at this garage having his car

repaired when the bank robbery took place.

We are investigating some armed robberies and we're looking for evidence

connected to those armed robberies.

So, do you know a lad called Niall Kiernan?

I do know him, yeah.

Yeah, we know him. He comes here

just for his cars to be fixed.

Have you done any work on a vehicle for his girlfriend?

Yeah, we did a fan switch last week.

-Last week, yeah.

-Monday.

-Monday, yeah.

-Last Monday?

-Yeah.

-Have you ever done any work on it previously?

Not that car, no.

Would either of you, if the push came to the shove,

be willing to give me a statement

regarding your recollection of doing the service on this vehicle?

-Yeah.

-Yeah. We've got no problems with doing that.

-Yeah?

-At the end of the day, all we did was fix a car.

They've been questioned, just as witnesses,

about the person that's in custody,

who says that on the day of the robbery, on the 12th of June,

he brought a car here to be repaired.

They're saying that that car was brought here last week.

So it seems Kiernan has been at the garage,

but not on the day of the robbery.

And it later transpired that he went to extreme lengths to try to back up this alibi.

As the investigation progressed,

we became aware of some CCTV that was in existence,

and this CCTV related to the 12th of June and, basically,

provided the alibi for Niall Kiernan.

We were quite confident that weren't true,

so we investigated this part of the CCTV.

And what we were able to show via the investigation is this CCTV hadn't

been fitted till a month after the offence had been committed.

And it's a point of discussion back at the office.

So what they've done is altered the time on the CCTV?

Yeah, because what we know,

the person who fitted the camera subsequently to these premises,

fitted them three weeks later.

-Right.

-On this occasion, he walks in nice and slowly.

Walks right over to the camera, to a degree,

so you get a good profile of him.

Sits down. So he's taking his time.

Putting himself in the cameras all the time. Doing a little bit of acting.

It's not often you get Kiernan wanting to be seen on CCTV somewhere, is it?

No. No. So he's there, reading his paper again.

He knows he's being filmed. He knows what he can show,

he knows what he wants the cameras to give him.

If it just dropped on us at court, you'd probably believe that,

-wouldn't you? You wouldn't be able to check it.

-Yeah, yeah.

So it would get him off with it,

but the camera's been fitted late, a month afterwards.

'In investigations, we're used to people lying,'

but it's very rare you find someone going to such an extent where they

would stage false CCTV for the time of an offence and produce that and,

potentially, get off with an offence at court of a very serious nature.

He's basically gone away and made a false alibi, which we can prove.

And an innocent man's not going to do that.

The only person who's going to go away and make a false alibi will be someone who is guilty.

It's now several months since the start of the investigation.

And it is an early-morning call for the Operation Rainforest team,

who are still hunting down their third and final wanted suspect.

That's the lad we are looking for.

The objective of the exercise today

is to try and arrest Arran Crossan

on suspicion of the robbery at Yorkshire Bank.

From the enquiries we've done,

it would appear that Crossan is in contact

at relevant times with Niall Kiernan.

They are close associates, they are criminal associates.

On the morning of the robbery at Yorkshire Bank,

there's contact between Crossan and Kiernan and also Morrison,

when they're clearly arranging to meet, etc.

The data obtained from the seized mobile phones has strengthened the

team's suspicions that Crossan was the gang's getaway driver.

We've got the clothing from Morrison's address,

of the two offenders that went into the bank,

and we've got the DNA from Kiernan on some of that clothing

so I think the indication is it's Morrison and Kiernan

that went into the bank and Crossan, if he's involved,

he would have been sat outside in the car waiting for them.

Potentially, he was involved in the theft of the vehicle, as well.

-257.

-259.

Time for the team to find out if it is third time lucky

in their attempt to capture Crossan.

We identified phone numbers for him.

We had a telecoms officer on the job.

She looked at the phones and she managed to identify

a girlfriend called Poppy Murray.

She managed to identify an address for him.

She looked at cell site evidence and it was obvious that his phone,

at night and in the mornings, was being at this address and area,

so there we decided to get a warrant

and go and execute a warrant at this address.

Maybe down the back of that one.

I'll be further on.

The team are hoping to find their man here,

at the address of his current girlfriend, Poppy Murray.

-Good morning. Greater Manchester Police. Does Poppy Murray live here?

-Yeah.

Oh, right. We've got a warrant to search the premises. How does your door open? I can't get in!

We'll explain to you in a second.

-Who else is in the address?

-Just me and my daughter and my son and my dog.

-Oh, right.

-What's it for?

Is it vicious, this? How do I turn lights on?

Who's that? Who's in the bed? Is that Arran?

Who's that? Is that Arran Crossan?

-Are you Arran?

-No.

Who are you? Why, who are you? You are Arran Crossan.

-Arran.

-Put your hands up for me, fella.

My colleague wants to speak to you.

From the Serious Organised Crime Group.

You are under arrest on suspicion of robbery at the Yorkshire Bank

in Haywood on the 12th of June this year.

You don't have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if

you do not mention, when questioned, something which you later rely on in court.

Poppy, you're under arrest for assisting an offender.

You don't have to say anything, but it may harm your defence...

Are you for real?

-Arran. Put your top on.

-Are you for real?

-..rely on in court.

Anything you do say may be given in evidence.

-POPPY:

-No, no, no.

-This is a...

We're going to have to speak to you about it.

We've already spoken to you on the phone, OK?

When was the last time you were arrested, Arran?

We'll go down to the police station.

-A while ago?

-Start of the year.

Start of the year, OK. You know the script, don't you?

-Take you down there...

-I can't believe you're arresting her.

-That's taking the...

-POPPY:

-Don't do this to me!

Poppy, you'll be all right. Poppy, you'll be all right.

He gets out of bed, he's not kicking off, he's not threatening,

he's not being abusive. Sometimes, you can go to an address

and they're kicking off, they're trying to hit you with things.

You'd obviously change your approach to the way you're going to deal with these people.

I'm going to cuff you at the front, because you've been cooperative.

All right for you, then, yeah? Good man.

Next one.

OK, I'll take you downstairs. Want to take that drink with you?

We'll be waiting for a van for a short while.

-What is your dog called?

-Missy.

Hello, Missy. Beautiful, you.

Beautiful.

These people are bullies, at the end of the day,

and they bully members of the public, people who work for a living,

people who buy cars, work in banks.

They bully them and terrify them.

And people are traumatised by it.

There are people who can never go back to work,

people who are really upset.

And it's one of those things that when you go in there and you lock them up

and you put the handcuffs on, you take them to the police station,

it's a great feeling, because it's us getting something back on these

people and making them feel, to a degree, what it's like to be helpless.

Because they are helpless when we get there, aren't they?

Will you stop filming, please? You've been asked to not film.

Poppy Murray is also being arrested for knowingly hiding a wanted person.

As the other members of the teams start their search for evidence at the address,

they make a quick and unexpected discovery.

-That's amphetamine, that, isn't it?

-It looks like it.

Is it paste? I haven't got my gloves on.

-Is it paste?

-It's frozen, mate.

-Oh, is it?

-That's how it stored.

-Can you smell it?

I can smell that smell.

-Yeah, yeah.

-So what we're going to do now is get Soco to come and

fingerprint this fridge.

'It happens a lot when you go to addresses and you find other things,'

because, predominately, if someone's involved in robberies,

they'll be involved in drugs, they'll be involved in other crime.

Criminals don't get involved in just one set crime.

Everything they do will be crime. It could be benefits fraud,

it could be other fraud, credit card fraud, stolen property, stolen cars.

They're involved in all types of crime.

So it's not a surprise, but it was a surprise to find such a large

quantity of amphetamine, in a fridge, which, as you walked in,

you just lift up a lid and it's all there.

It wasn't even hidden, it was just in a fridge.

The discovery of drugs in the house leads to further arrests.

Brilliant. It's a great result, mate.

It's a bonus, isn't it? That's a lot of amphet, a lot of amphet.

-Yeah, you can't ignore that.

-No.

"I'm minding it for somebody.

-"I don't know who."

-Is that what she said?

-Have you recorded that?

-Yeah.

"I'm minding it for someone, I don't know who."

-Yeah.

-Oh, right, brilliant!

He's got a debtors' list in there.

It says sniff used, snow, and then money.

-To all these persons. So he's...

-They're all in it, mate, they're all in it.

-We're going to be some time.

-A little lad.

Yeah. Electronic scales with cocaine on them.

What a find. What a nice day.

Worth getting up at six o'clock.

Joel.

Joel Murray will have to answer questions in custody about the cocaine

discovered by the officers in his bedroom.

It's a cracking result and they're the type of results you like,

when you find stuff, because it's a bit laborious searching a house.

Searching drawers, searching cupboards, searching all these rooms.

And when you look at such a big house, we was at,

you take a big deep breath and you think, "God."

But then, when you find something like that, it makes it worthwhile.

As well as the £800,000 worth of amphetamine,

the team make other intriguing discoveries in the house.

I found this here.

The handrail at the bottom of the stairs

pulls out and they've got like a drawer with four compartments

and there's some sort of electrical attachment to it.

I don't know what that's all about.

But you see, that's quite a good...

potentially a good hiding place.

As we go upstairs...

..I'll show you the other one we found.

What we found in this room was, the tiles were a bit loose in this area, here,

so obviously we've smashed the tiles away,

which revealed this compartment here.

And it pulls out.

Clearly a purpose-built hiding place.

Whether it's for valuables, jewellery and cash,

or whether it's for illicit substances, only they know.

But it's quite a good find.

That stage, we know nothing further about the address.

It is only as we start to search the address and we start to speak to the

occupant that we find out that the father of Poppy Murray is an

ex-manager of the Happy Mondays band,

that he'd just been sentenced to some importation of drugs.

I think it was cannabis, at the time, I'm not sure.

But he'd just recently been sent to prison for a criminal offence

of importation of drugs.

Eventually, the officers find what they are really looking for,

evidence linking Arran Crossan to the bank robberies.

Cracking find, that.

Stuffed under there.

-Right under the drawers?

-Right under.

And all rolled up.

That and that was in that sleeve.

All in a ball.

-Right.

-Probably his kit.

-Brilliant, isn't it?

It's a crucial breakthrough for the team, and one the bosses back at HQ

need to hear about immediately.

Some good news for you.

They find, underneath Poppy's wardrobe,

the dark waterproofs, and inside the pocket of the waterproofs,

balies and gloves. Beautiful, mate.

Beautiful. There's your charge.

There's your charge and remand.

And there's yet more good news for Operation Rainforest.

Next to where Crossan had been sleeping,

another vital piece of evidence.

There was a baseball cap. Inside the baseball cap

there was a key, an Audi car.

Again, when we do some research into that,

it comes back that's a stolen car that key we've got responds to.

When officers do a search of the area, recover that stolen car,

down the road, parked up, again, on false number plates.

When the car was moved to a nearby garage for forensic investigation,

officers tried the key found next to Arran Crossan's bed.

It's obvious that this man is going to go out and go

and commit a robbery, an aggravated burglary.

He is going to commit serious criminality, again,

because he's kitted up for it.

He's got a stolen car on false plates, which he has the key to.

The freezer full of amphetamine found in the Murray household was later

destroyed with no-one forensically linked to it.

However, Poppy Murray and her brother, Joel, were later found guilty of

being concerned in the supply of cocaine.

Poppy received a 12-month suspended sentence

and Joel was sent to a youth offenders' institute for three years.

It's been an excellent day for the Serious Organised Crime team,

with the final suspected gang member, Arran Crossan,

off the streets and in police custody.

Well, we've got the three we believe were involved in the robbery at the

Yorkshire Bank in Hayward on the 12th of June.

We've got quite significant evidence against them,

and quite a strong case.

We don't think this is the only robbery they've committed.

We are looking at other similar robberies at banks in the Manchester area

and the investigation will continue until we've exhausted all lines of inquiry.

Although their three suspects are now under lock and key,

the team's work is far from over.

They're hopeful that, like Kiernan and Morrison,

Crossan will also be remanded in custody.

The arrest is the simple part.

The arrest is so easy, we arrest lots of people.

You go and get them, you bring them in.

The hard part is then interviewing them afterwards.

I'm saying you were

in the Yorkshire Bank in Haywood, sat in a car waiting for your robber

mates to come out of the bank with the money.

-Am I right in saying that?

-No comment.

OK.

Have you ever been to that Yorkshire Bank?

-No comment.

-Have you ever been on Market Street?

-No comment.

-Would you have been on Market Street that week?

-No comment.

-Have you ever been in an Audi in that location?

-No comment.

-And you didn't know it was stolen?

No comment.

Do you know if Kiernan or Morrison have been in that area at that time?

No comment.

Ha-ha-ha!

-Can you turn that light off, please?

-Yeah, I will in a minute.

With Arran Crossan's initial interview completed,

the team meet to discuss the evidence gathered against him so far.

They'll have to present their findings to the Crown Prosecution Service

in the hope of bringing a charge against him.

So that's good. Good evidence for Crossan.

The fact he's found with the car key,

identified to a stolen vehicle parked about half a mile away, Gary, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-About half a mile from the address where he's locked up.

It's on false plates. We've got the Kiernan, as well, didn't we?

We had the car key with him and that recovered.

-Yeah. Robber's kit.

-We've got the robber's kit.

And that, when you look at pictures, is a robber's kit.

Waterproof clothing, full face balaclava, leather gloves.

It's a robber's kit. So good evidence there in relation to the robbery side for him.

We just need a detailed summary doing, don't we?

A detailed summary and we'll put the data together, put it all in,

and we can give it to them and say,

"This is what we're showing you now."

-So that's going to be our new case summary, in effect?

-Yeah.

DIALLING

Confident with their evidence,

one of the detectives puts in a call to the Crown Prosecution Service.

I'm calling from Nexus House in Ashton-under-Lyne,

it's the Serious and Organised Crime building.

I've been doing some telephony work in relation to the suspects and what

he's done on the day of the robbery is he's in contact with Kiernan,

there's a flurry of activity early in the morning from eight o'clock.

Then the phone's switched off.

Armed robbery is committed and the phone's switches back on just after four o'clock,

which is the same as what happens with the other suspects' phones, as in Morrison and Kiernan.

Despite the initial optimism,

the conversation doesn't go as the team expect.

(NFA.)

NFA means no further action.

A devastating blow for the team who

have worked so hard to put the case together.

But what about in relation to conspiracy to commit robbery?

It comes from the fact that he's got a robber's kit,

which is the same kit that the other robbers have got,

the fact they've changed the phones on the same date before the robbery.

Sergeant Castley doesn't agree with the CPS decision

and asks his colleague to appeal against it.

Sometimes, I can look at a case,

I can look at the decision the CPS have made.

I may not agree with it,

but I can understand where they're coming from.

And you have to take it on the chin.

We have to think, "Yeah, I'll go away and do more work on it.

"I'll go away and do what they're asking me to do."

Sometimes, you'll disagree with them, and that's just the job.

We have different roles, to a degree.

I'm an investigator, I investigate, put a case forward,

which I become passionate about.

The CPS decide who goes to court.

On this occasion, I still can't understand why they initially

said "NFA Arran Crossan," and then, secondly, they said bail him,

considering the threat this man was to the public of Manchester.

If I have someone who is as violent as Arran Crossan in custody,

I don't want to put him on bail,

where he can go round and go and rob other people and violently attack

people and commit further crime.

I want him in prison while I conduct my inquiries.

So far, there's nothing more we can do.

We have the CPS.

They've made their decision

and this person's going to walk out of the police station, which,

when I talked earlier about the great finds of drugs in the address and

the great finds of the key in the address, makes you feel great.

Bailing this person who's an armed robber, who's going to commit further offences,

is one of the most horrendous feelings you can get.

Following that legal advice, Crossan was released on bail,

but soon ended up back in custody,

because of his involvement in another violent offence.

Arran Crossan, to his wisdom, he went out and committed

an aggravated burglary at someone's house.

Five people entered an address, violently attacked the occupants,

um, had weapons, etc.

He was arrested and charged with that offence.

It annoys you, it really does annoy you.

On this occasion, we had easy enough evidence to support a charge to show

he was involved in a conspiracy.

But he got out, bail, and he went out and committed a further offence.

A violent offence, at that.

In all, it took the Serious Organised Crime Group almost three years

to bring Operation Rainforest to a close.

The case centred around violent bank robberies and house burglaries

in which innocent victims were threatened and cash and cars were stolen.

Anthony Morrison pleaded guilty

and was sentenced to eight years in prison

for the robbery at the Yorkshire Bank.

Getaway driver Arran Crossan pleaded not guilty.

At court, the jury found the evidence overwhelming.

He was convicted and sent to prison for 17 years

for conspiracy to commit robbery.

Niall Kiernan pleaded guilty to

perverting the course of justice regarding

the false creation of CCTV, which he presented as an alibi,

but he pleaded not guilty to the bank robberies.

However, the jury didn't agree.

Kiernan's now in prison and is expected to be behind bars

for a lengthy 22 years.

They're not nice people,

they're horrible people who bully people

and bully the vulnerable people of society,

people in their houses who have no weapons.

It's always a good feeling when we put them in prison and we stop them from harming anyone else.

They're career criminals. They're not going to change,

they're not suddenly going to get a job like, you know, Joe Public gets.

And it really is a good, satisfying feeling

putting dangerous people where they belong.

Violent criminals, no matter what you do,

they will commit violent crime and the only way

you can stop them from doing that is by putting them in prison.