Crash n Carry is the astonishing true story of the rise and rise of the ramraider. In this startling investigation top true crime writer Steve Richards reveals the shocking truth. He shows that far from being just petty chancers, ramraiders are in fact part of highly organised gangs, masterminded by career criminals who systematically select and raid their targets. One such gang got away with [pound]100 million of stolen goods in a daring heist that shocked the international crime fighting community. In these pages and in their own words, reformed ramraiders talk about how they pulled off some of the most audacious robberies in criminal history, what drove them to do it and how they managed to evade the law for so long. Action packed and told in Richards' inimitable style this is the ultimate book about one of the most dangerous crime waves ever to sweep the country. 

The gang became known as the ‘Yellow Pages’ gang due to their use of the Yellow Pages in helping them select their targets. A £lOOm ramraid gang escape totally undetected into Europe, the biggest and cleverest ramraid ever! Paintings worth £Ms stolen in bizarre ramraids. Top ramraiders reveal all about the business. A-Z coverage of ramraids from their birthplace in the North East of England to the UK, Europe and world-wide. 

The ramraid phenomenon was a crime exported world-wide. Spectacular ram-raids in Australia and New Zealand also covered as well as the bizarre, wacky and weird. Police were rendered impotent by the gang’s ability to defeat them. A 16-year old pregnant girl brought the gang’s reign to an end despite the police having ignored her telephone calls with information she gave on three occasions! The ramraid gang were given a total of 33 years behind bars, along with others in the book shows how they became too clever for police to capture. 

Counter surveillance techniques, getaway routes explored, attempted murder— and more! Years of persuasion from the Author finally paid off when he secured the gangs help to write this book. 

Prison life uncovered with never before published photos smuggled out of UK prisons showing the true extent of this gang’s power right under the noses of prison authorities — drink and drug parties were the norm in this living life on the edge lifestyle within prison. Prison violence becomes a way of life for the gang that started a crime wave throughout the world — their own story. 

Includes coverage of Liverpool's ram-raid scene and the early years of infamous drug dealer Curtis Warren and his associates.

(This chapter leads into interviews with the top ramraiders and tells their story.)

When ramraids were thwarted by the ingenuity or luck of those being victimised there were plenty more retail outlets to rape and strip of their goods. This chapter acts as a reminder, an ‘aide memoir’, to build up to the ending, which revolves around a specific gang that danced with death on many an occasion, they gambled with their raw talents, they were Eddie Kid and Evel Knievel mixed into one, they gave entertainment value for the public, fed to them via the media, but like all things, fashions change, but like anything else this once in vogue element will make a comeback. In the meantime let’s take a look back over the time at this phenomenon that took the North East region of England then the rest of the UK and finally the world by storm. 

I could be accused of glamorising crime, the favourite question on all journalists’ lips whenever they ask about anyone taking up with writing such things, the answer to that must be an emphatic, “Yes”. We’ve come to expect our icons of the criminal world to be larger than life, better than anyone else at foiling the final capture scene. We all love a good thriller so here it is for real. 

How often we’ve willed Steve McQueen to be able to jump his stolen motor bike over that barbed wire fence in the film ‘The Great Escape’, even though we’ve seen the act fail time after time, we still want him to escape, willing him to escape. The ‘Italian Job’, didn’t we want to see them get away with it, of course. Remember the end of the film when one of the characters says, “Hold on, I’ve got an idea,” what the fuck was the idea, didn’t we want the film to go on a little longer, I sure did. What of those other films that have become part of our repeat TV diet, we know the ending but we always hope, and that’s why we’ve come to champion the cause of the underdog. 

Don’t forget that most of those carrying out these ramraids were doing so out of necessity and of course ‘necessity’ is, as we know, ‘the mother of invention’. ‘Necessity’ though eventually turned into greed. More wasn’t enough. Daring became a challenge to the ramraiders in outrunning the authorities, who only had a real break when the gang were all grassed up, good policing or detective work had nothing to do with the capture of the main gang, more of that in the relevant chapter, let’s crack on. 

April 1987 – ‘Try and try again’ was the motto in use by these gangs. A bungled raid on a clothes shop in the West End of Newcastle didn’t put off the occupants of a stolen turbo powered Saab. The clothes shop was rammed to such a degree that it caused masonry to fall onto the turbo powered vehicle, nothing else for it but to travel at high speed across Newcastle to nearby Jesmond, home to the hoity-toity brigade, yeah, there’s sure to be one of them posh wine stores there, what’s it called, ‘Winterschladen’.

The rear doors to the off-licence were rammed and the load up of fags was fast – supersonic fast, some £1,500 worth was taken. Invariably the damage caused was far more in excess of the value of goods stolen and that was the case in both of these raids. Finding the right ‘G’ spot was going to take some practice to hone the skills needed for future raids. 

Although residents were awakened by noise from the raid on the off-licence and they witnessed the booty being loaded up they made no attempt to stop the crime. Ordinarily such a crime would be bound to attract some sort of Rambo character out of his mud hut, but this was a crime against unseen victims - commercial victims. 

Okay we all know that commercial insurance premiums are hiked up due to this sort of thing, repairs to premises after such raids would make many business a high risk, who’d risk their lives to stop such a commercial robbery, not many! We’d nearly all, protect our neighbours from such an attack because we know them, but people that we don’t know, who run most business ventures, have to fight their own battles. 
This off-licence had been victim to umpteen previous robberies, now the upgraded version was to hit them. 

May 1987 – Driving skills were going to have to be improved on - this raid proves it. This was the second raid on one of Tyneside’s home electrical suppliers. Luxury goods were targeted – video recorders. Okay we’ve nearly all got one of these contraptions, soon outdated by DVD, but back then these machines were bringing £100 to £150 from the right people and there were plenty of people willing to forgo the usual one to three year warranty in order to save a few hundred quid. 

A stolen van from the renamed ‘Water Board’ was used to ram the shop window, the goods were loaded into another stolen vehicle, this time to a Metro turbo powered car, oh yes, they needed the kudos of a high powered car and if it was black it made it even better to sport around town in. The turbo-powered car was spotted by British Rail Transport Police, last seen by them, powering its way out of Newcastle City centre at a fast rate of knots. 
 
 

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