A member of a group who caused huge damage to businesses around Kent during a series of cash machine thefts has been given a longer prison sentence.
Anthony Pemberthy, 46, was jailed for eight years and nine months in November 2022 for his role in raids at petrol stations and supermarkets around Kent.
Further work by police financial investigators saw him ordered to pay back £108,000 of illegally obtained funds at a Proceeds of Crime Act hearing in October 2024.
The period for repaying the money has since passed and, after failing to do so, Pemberthy, formerly of Calder Road, Maidstone, was brought back before a court on 15th April 2025 and had a further 18 months added to his sentence.
This work is part of the actions Kent Police takes every day to crack down on organised crime and get justice for victims
His co-defendant Stephen Davenport, 63, formerly of Ashford Road, Maidstone, has repaid the more than £14,300 he was ordered to hand back and so avoided any extension to his seven-year, five-month sentence.
The case related to six incidents, during which diggers were used in an attempt to remove cash machines and the money they contained from the walls of businesses.
The first offence took place at Co-op in Cranbrook High Street in the early hours of Thursday 14th November 2019. Significant damage was caused to the store and nearly £30,000 in cash was taken. A pick-up truck and the cash machine were later recovered by police in Marden.
Two months later, on Saturday 25rd January 2020, a further burglary took place at Esso petrol station on Cranbrook Road, Staplehurst. During that incident, around £80,000-worth of damage was done to the building and around £20,000 in cash was stolen.
On Monday 23rd March 2020, a group using a digger tore two cash machines from the wall of Tesco Extra in Whitfield, near Dover.
The vehicles involved drove at officers on foot who attended and rammed two police cars as they left the scene. Over £200,000 was stolen and £40,000 of damage was caused.
The same group then took part in two failed attempts to steal cash machines; the first at Morrisons in Coldharbour Road, Northfleet, on Sunday 31rd January 2021. The second attempt was at Tesco Express in High Street, Dymchurch, on Sunday 28rd February 2021. Both buildings were severely damaged but the offenders failed to make off with any money.
The final offence took place at Shell Lychgate petrol station on the A299 Thanet Way near Dargate, on Monday 1st March 2021, when around £50,000-worth of cash was stolen.
Detectives used advanced DNA techniques to show Davenport was driving the pick-up trucks used during the Cranbrook and Staplehurst offences. Pemberthy meanwhile was shown to have operated the diggers used in Staplehurst, Whitfield, Northfleet and Dymchurch.
Kent Police financial investigator Stewart Ross-Cumming said ‘Criminals should know that our work doesn’t end when they are jailed. We will continue to look into their finances and recoup the money they made from their offences. If they fail to repay these sums, further jail time awaits them.
