For ATM blasters: Courier driver delivers gas from the Netherlands and has to go to court

Created: 01/17/2022 11:04 am

By: Nina Good

Clancy N. (centre) at the hearing in August 2021 before the Ebersberg lay judges, behind his public defender and an interpreter.

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A Dutch gang of Gelautomat sprinklers had their base of operations in Poing (Ebersberg district).

A verdict by the Ebersberg District Court against a courier driver has now been toned down in Munich.

Poing/Ebersberg

– Clancy N. (26) from the Netherlands was amazed when the police stopped and arrested him on the Autobahn near Würzburg.

Through research, she knew that the Dutchman was on his way to Poing from Utrecht, with two gas cylinders and various tools in his luggage, including two control knobs for welding torches and four non-return valves.

The equipment should only serve one purpose: blowing up ATMs.

The district court in Ebersberg had sentenced Clancy N. to two years and ten months in prison in August last year for attempted assistance in causing an explosive device explosion.

But he appealed.

The case has now been reopened before the Munich II Regional Court.

800 euros for a trip from Utrecht to Poing

Clancy N., who was born in Curaçao and most recently lived in Rotterdam, described his situation at the time to the judge. "I was unemployed, had no money and had to steal food from the supermarket," he said. There he met someone who made him the offer "that I should bring nitrous oxide bottles from Utrecht to Munich". He said he didn't look at the bottles and didn't know they were explosives. He should get a total of 800 euros for the trip. "I lived on the streets, had hardly anything to eat and had no insight into what I was doing."

Presiding judge Johannes Feneberg noted that blasting ATMs is much more common in the Netherlands than in Germany.

"So one could assume that the transport of gas cylinders is intended for this." "If they say that it is nitrous oxide, then I have to believe it.

I don't know the difference," the defendant replied.

Complete blasting equipment in the car - only the detonator is missing

A police officer from the Munich Criminal Investigation Department reported that "complete explosive equipment" was found in Clancy N.'s car, except for the detonator. But a timer, tools, gloves, gas lines. An address in Poing was entered in the car's navigation system. It led to an apartment that the owner regularly rented to “people from the Netherlands” for a few weeks via the online portal Airbnb. Apparently, after Clancy N. was arrested, he was quickly missed by his employers. Because he got a text message on his cell phone: "Where are you? The guys from Utrecht are waiting for you.”

The police officer also spoke about the series of explosives that already existed in and around Munich.

In Munich and Ottobrunn, for example, ATMs were blown up and 160,000 and 350,000 euros respectively were stolen.

A main perpetrator has already been sentenced to twelve and a half years in prison.

Further processes are pending.

Confession brings reduced sentence

In his last word, the accused admitted that he had "actually committed a criminal offence".

"But that was only because of the bad situation I was in at the time." Since he was arrested, his life has changed.

In fact, the Munich II Regional Court changed the judgment from Ebersberg.

The Dutchman got half a year discount.

The sentence is now two years and four months in prison.

The main deviations from the hearing at the district court: Now there was a confession;

moreover, judge Feneberg and his assessors did not recognize such a high degree of criminal activity as the district court.

However, there is a “massive property crime” and a high degree of danger, as well as participation in a highly professional criminal organization based on the division of labour.

That's why there was no probation.

"Hopefully you are cured of courier trips," said the judge.

You can read more news from the Ebersberg region here.

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