A THIEF who took part in a smash and grab raid at a bank has been jailed for two-and-a-half years.

Stephen Hall and at least two others used a stolen JCB digger to rip a cash machine out of the wall at the HSBC bank in Rainham.

The ATM, containing £48,560, was then loaded onto a flatbed tipper truck and driven off. But the machine was later found abandoned – with the cash still inside.

Hall was arrested after a car he was connected with was recovered. Forensic evidence and a statement from his ex-wife also helped put him behind bars.

Two other men have been bailed pending other enquiries.

Maidstone Crown Court heard how the JCB was stolen from Ward House Builders in Grain on March 4. The tipper truck was stolen the same day.

Andrew Collings, prosecuting, said the digger and the truck left the Tunbridge Wells area in the early hours the next day.

CCTV recorded the vehicles, along with a four-wheel drive Mitsubishi Shogun, travelling in convoy and entering a car park at Rainham shopping centre.

Mr Collings said the JCB was driven up the pedestrian precinct and smashed through the front window of the bank.

"The digger was used to elevate the shovel to rip the ATM machine from the mountings and carry it out of the building, causing significant damage," he said.

"It was put onto the back of the waiting lorry. The machine was valued at £35-40,000."

One of the gang, wearing a balaclava, was seen with a heavy duty angle grinder. "He seems to direct the operation," said the prosecutor.

After the machine was driven away, police were alerted. An officer saw the lorry shortly afterwards on the A2 at Newington and followed it to New Farm in Newington High Street.

There, he found the lorry abandoned. In the darkness, he saw a figure running away across a field. The ATM was then recovered.

The officer searched buildings at the farm and recovered balaclavas, other face masks and three sets of clothing.

Also found was a Ford Fiesta registered to 44-year-old Hall’s father David.

Hall, of Trafalgar Close, Wouldham, admitted burglary and conspiracy to steal.

Judge Warwick McKinnon told Hall it was a professionally planned operation involving organised crime in stealing a valuable cash machine.

"You played a full part in it," he said. "You were not the brains, but a gopher. But without gophers, crime cannot be completed."

The judge said 76 days Hall had spent in custody would count towards his sentence.