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Footage has been released showing the moment two brazen burglars who ram-raided a newsagent and threatened Co-op staff with hammers were caught.
Serial robbers Joseph Hoadley and Grant Searle dragged an ATM from the Northfleet Food and Wine store in the High Street and later targeted a Co-op in Ebbsfleet.
Watch police arrest the brazen burglars sleeping in their hotel room. Credit: Kent Police
The pair used a Ford Transit van to smash through the small off-licence shortly after midnight on November 28, 2019.
Their crime spree was described as "exceptionally callous" by investigators who traced their activity to an earlier raid at a commercial premises in Rochester and multiple house burglaries across Gravesend, Dartford and Meopham.
Footage of the incident and their subsequent arrest was shown as part of BBC's Crimewatch Live this morning.
In an additional clip now released officers can be seen storming the Campanile hotel near the Dartford Crossing on December 14, 2019 where they arrested both Searle, 29 and Hoadley, 26.
It comes after an investigation led by Kent Police who managed to track down the pair using camera footage, mobile phone checks and a receipt from a nearby DIY store.
CCTV footage of the moment Hoadley and Searle bash through the front of the shop
The suspects – who fled via two different vehicles – initially evaded capture after blocking a railway bridge using the van with the cash machine in, preventing officers from pursuing them.
But patrols later located the abandoned Transit in Lodge Lane, Cobham, about 40 minutes later.
The thieves left empty handed but an automatic number plate recognition check got a hit and another vital clue was left behind.
Inside officers discovered a receipt from a B&Q store at the Imperial Business Estate in Gravesend where the two had purchased equipment a day prior.
Police paid a visit to the store to obtain CCTV when in a major stroke of luck a member of staff recalled seeing the pair and told cops he had to confront the two men for attempting to steal low value items.
The "quick-thinking" witness challenged the two thieves, following them into the car park, and after recovering the items took a picture of their number plate.
Now with a conclusive link between the two men and the van, investigators circulated CCTV images of the men to neighbouring police forces and got a positive ID for the two suspects.
Meanwhile, the pair struck again when they robbed shop staff at the Co-op in Talbot Lane, Ebbsfleet, 10 days after the initial Northfleet ram raid.
Searle approached a worker behind the till and placed his hands in the air before being escorted to the rear of the shop and into the stock room.
His accomplice Hoadley then threatened a second employee with a hammer before removing cash from the shop's safe.
CCTV images revealed the pair were both wearing distinctive black clothing during the robberies.
Phone data then linked the pair to both offences and even uncovered where they were hiding after jotting backwards and forwards between Sussex and Kent.
After placing a call to the Campanile hotel near the Dartford Crossing using a landline, police were then able track the pair to a hotel room they were nested in.
The pair pleaded guilty and were sentenced at Maidstone Crown Court in July.
Hoadley, of no fixed address, admitted conspiring to burgle a business, conspiring to burgle homes and robbery. He was sentenced to 10-and-a-half years.
Searle, of no fixed address, admitted conspiring to burgle a business, conspiring to burgle homes and robbery. He was sentenced to 11-and-a-half years.
Detective Sergeant Ian Sanderson, who led the investigation told BBC CrimeWatch Live: "It is a massive sense of relief when they are off the streets and I think for the victims to see the sentence come through that is a great feeling.
"The impact on the victims was pretty huge.
"We are never going to take away from the fact they have been a victim of crime. But I think it is some element of closure."
