A robbery gang who ripped out a Sainsbury’s ATM using chains tied to a high-powered Audi were foiled by a brave bus driver.
Cameron Corbett was just 18 when he took part in the brazen raid in Edinburgh's West End which left behind £42,000 of damage.
Corbett and his two accomplices dragged the cash machine into the street after terrified shop staff ran for safety.
But a bus driver stopped his vehicle to block the gang taking away the ATM and helped foil the heist.
Police later recovered the Audi SQ5 and forensic tests on a plastic bottle left inside it identified Corbett’s DNA.
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Corbett appeared at the city’s sheriff court on Friday and admitted, while acting with others unknown to prosecutors, breaking into the Sainsbury’s Local in Shandwick Place to steal the ATM.
Fiscal depute Jack Caster said the store had closed at 11pm but workers remained to stock shelves through the night.
The Audi pulled up outside at 3.27am and three masked men jumped out and approached the shop.
Mr Caster said five staff members saw the trio trying to force entry and fled through a fire exit and contacted police.
He said the gang got inside the store and put the heavy metal chains round the ATM.
The prosecutor said: “The Audi repositioned itself and the chains were attached to the car. The car then drove off and this wrenched the ATM from its housing.”
The store’s glass frontage was damaged, the court heard, as the cash machine was hauled onto the road.
Mr Caster said a bus driver passing by noticed the scene and “positioned his bus to provide a barrier between the car and the ATM”.
The panicking robbers tried to free the ATM from the chains and move it to the boot of the Audi.
The court heard a taxi driver approached the scene and one of the gang threw an “object” at it, denting its bodywork.
Mr Caster said: “By this stage police were converging. Lights from police vehicles could be seen against the buildings in the distance.
“The men freed the chains from the Audi and drove off leaving the ATM behind.”
Following the incident on May 17 2018, the ATM and chains could be seen lying in the street next to the shattered shop windows as police cordoned off the scene.
The Audi was recovered by cops the following day and a bottle inside the vehicle was found to contain Corbett’s DNA. Corbett was caught by police a week later in Fife.
Incriminating texts between Corbett and a man called ‘Dan’, which appeared to relate to the foiled raid, were found on the accused’s mobile phone.
The court heard Corbett, now 21, was jailed for four-and-half years in October 18 for breaking into a home in Kelty, Fife, taking car keys and stealing the owner’s Audi A3.
Sheriff Douglas Keir deferred sentence on Corbett, of Edinburgh’s Granton area, until next month for reports.
