A GAMBLING addict used a digger to smash through the wall of a bank so his gang could steal a cash machine in a ram raid.

James Sayers, 31, was part of a group who targeted the Barclays branch in Henfield.

The group had stolen vehicles and were seen going in a convoy to the bank, where a JCB Telehandler was used to rip out the ATM from the wall.

Sayers and others then made off with £50,000 in cash from inside the machine from the heist.

It was claimed that he got involved in the raids because of his spiralling gambling debts.

He also admitted a similar ram raid at a Co-op store in Didcot, Oxfordshire when he appeared at Hove Crown Court.

His Honour Judge Jeremy Gold QC heard how an Audi A6 was stolen from a rural property, along with a Nissan Navara which was used to transport the stolen machine.

Sayers’ gang was confronted by a forest ranger, so they rammed his vehicle and later torched the stolen cars in the woods.

But he was arrested, and admitted two burglaries on Barclays and on the Co-op, and taking vehicles without the owner’s consent.

Gabby Henty, prosecuting, said the group raided Henfield in April 2018. A year later a group targeted the Co-op in Oxford.

She revealed that Sayers was currently residing at HMP Highdown in Sutton, after being jailed for a total of seven years for a similar ram raid in Hampshire, and for producing cannabis.

For both the Henfield raid and the Didcot raid, Sayers had left his DNA in the JCB vehicles which were abandoned at the scene.

During the second offence, the gang had stolen a Ford Transit van and cut open the roof in order to drop an ATM machine inside using the plant machinery.

In that raid they bagged as much as £105,000, the prosecutors said.

Judge Gold QC said: “These are extremely serious offences involving ram raiding.”

He said that because Sayers is already serving a prison sentence, he could only add two and half years to the overall sentence, of which the ram raider will serve half.

Sayers, formerly of Rushett Common, Bramley, Guildford, was also banned from driving for six years, to cover at least three years after his release from prison which The Argus estimates will be in about May 2024.