There are those times in life when we seem to do a great deal of work for very little reward.
It's been a decade since one Manchester crime gang spent months planning and carrying out a back-breaking heist only to come away with barely anything for their efforts. Back in 2012, a gang of thieves spent six-months digging a tunnel under a car park in a bid to steal from a cash machine outside a Blockbuster video store.
The daring heist happened some time between 5.30pm on January 2, 2012 and January 3 in Fallowfield shopping precinct. To make sure they were still going in the right direction, it's believed the gang drilled tiny holes from the roof of the tunnel into the floor of the store.
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It's thought they then inserted telescopic cameras to see how far along they were. The criminals dug the tunnel from a railway embankment at the rear of the video store, which went under a car park and beneath the foundations of the store itself.
The passageway was approximately 100ft in length and around 4ft in height - enough for an average height man, or woman, to stoop while walking through. It had also been fitted with lighting and roof supports making it an impressive piece of amateur engineering work.
Once the tunnel reached directly underneath the cash machine, the raiders used machinery to drill through more than 15 inches of concrete to get to the bounty. However, they escaped back down the tunnel with just over £6,000 as a "reward" for their exhausting effort as the ATM was almost empty when they struck, reported the MEN.
The gang are believed to have covered their tracks by removing the soil they dug each night to remain undetected. The audacious Great Escape-style scheme came four-years after an identical plot was foiled by police.
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In spring 2007, a tunnel dug just yards from the new one was three-quarters finished when it was discovered by workmen. Detectives believed the same team could have been responsible for both tunnels.
One workman who uncovered the earlier tunnel in the same spot gave a detailed description to the MEN. The workman said: "We were laying some ducting for new electric cables on the site of a building which had been demolished.
"We were using a digger to get down to the old electric cables to put the new ones alongside and as the JCB went through the concrete, it must have gone through the roof of the tunnel. We didn't know what it was at first, so I got down to have a look.
"It stretched about 20 metres from a railway embankment, then headed towards the Blockbuster cashpoint. They were almost there.
"I wasn't worried about it collapsing while I was down there, they had made a really good job of the supports and even the police were impressed with the workmanship. They had also covered the entrance with wood then soil so that it couldn't be seen."
One detective sergeant with Longsight CID was quoted in the M.E.N. as saying: "In all my years of service, I have never seen anything quite as elaborate as this. These people had obviously spent a long time plotting this crime."
The tunnel was later sealed with concrete. The same year, a plotline in the classic Manchester set TV show Shameless, appeared to have been inspired by the mole gang's escapades.
The following years saw several other heists, and attempted raids, by 'mole gangs' throughout Greater Manchester but there's no evidence it was same gang involved in the Blockbuster enterprise.
In a Freedom of Information (FOI) Request submitted to Greater Manchester Police, the M.E.N. asked if GMP if any arrests, charges or successful convictions were made regarding the 'mole gang' that struck a Fallowfield shopping centre in 2012. GMP responded saying no records were found in relation to the FOI request.
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