Armed robber jailed for raid 25 years ago

Cold case police managed to crack the first armed robbery to be featured on the BBC's Crimewatch programme after reviewing fingerprint evidence stored from the raid on a Derbyshire bank in 1985.

Alan Murray, 59, of Woodmans House, in Pilmoor, near York, was jailed for 10 years at Derby Crown Court yesterday for robbery and possessing a firearm after pleading guilty at a previous hearing.

Judge Andrew Hamilton said the conviction had acted as a "wake-up call" for criminals that justice will catch up with them.

Derbyshire Police, which is still looking for Murray's two accomplices, said fingerprints and new technology helped link him to the raid at Lloyds Bank in Cromford, Derby. Murray and his two accomplices escaped with 7,500 – the equivalent of 17,000 today.

Security guard John Power, 61 at the time, suffered serious injuries after being hit with the butt of a gun.

The car was found two days later in Market Place, Belper. Prints found at the scene and on paperwork for hire of the getaway car were preserved at the time of the robbery.

They were matched last year against prints taken by Nottinghamshire Police in an investigation in 1987, placing Murray at the scene of the crime.