Three men were due to appear at Leeds Magistrates' Court today charged with a series of robberies at premises including betting offices, bingo halls, a jewellers and a travel agency.
The three men aged in their 20s and 30s and from the Leeds area were arrested in the city centre on Friday by officers from City and Holbeck CID.
One of the robberies which they are charged with involved a raid on the premises of Herbert Brown, jewellers and pawnbrokers, in Cross Gates Shopping Centre on September 24 when three men wearing builders' hard hats, dust masks and fluorescent jackets escaped with a large quantity of jewellery.
All three are charged with conspiracy to commit seven robberies throughout West Yorkshire between September 17 and October 31 this year.
The first offence with which they are charged concerns a raid on the premises of Thomas Cook in Ossett, near Wakefield, eight days earlier.
The third robbery was at Gala Bingo in Leeds the day after the Herbert Brown raid. The fourth was on another Gala Bingo hall in Bradford on October 2 and the fifth was staged at a Coral's betting office in Ossett the following day.
A second Coral's betting office in Armley, Leeds, was robbed the day after – October 30 and the final robbery with which the three are charged involved a robbery on an employee carrying a firm's payroll in Pepper Road, Hunslet, Leeds.
The arrests follow inquiries by Wakefield CID in conjunction with detectives from Leeds and Holbeck, North East and North West Leeds divisions.
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