Four men jailed after coin burglary

Four men from Bristol have been sentenced to a combined total of 4 years and 10 months in prison for handling more than £33,000 worth of stolen coins.

The sentencing follows a burglary at a coin distribution company in Stoke Gifford last year.

Employees at the company arrived at work to find a ladder up against the side of the building and signs of a break-in via the roof.

Initial enquires found that the men had covered sensors, scooped coins into buckets and used a makeshift zip-wire to transport the buckets from the roof to the ground.

On the morning of the robbery, police received a call from a member of the public who saw several men unloading blue bags from a car and going into a house in Greenway Park.

Police went to the property and after a struggle they managed to arrest Andrew Monks, 28.

Other officers, including a police dog unit, found Neil Griffin, 27, hiding in a bush.

Asa Alvis, 27, and Jordan Hughes, 22, were arrested in a nearby garden, hiding behind a shed.

The four men admitted a charge of handling stolen goods and were sentenced at Bristol Crown Court.

Monks, Griffin and Hughes all received a one-year sentence. Alvis was given a one year and ten months sentence.

PC James Nolan, of North East Investigations, said that the robbery "looked like something you'd see in a movie plot."