ARMED raiders who escaped with more than £300,000 from a Huddersfield bank have been jailed.

But a court was told that other members of the gang, who brought terror to bank staff in Marsh, had escaped.

They are thought to have fled to Spain.

Two members of the gang appeared in Bradford Crown Court yesterday.

Carl Hargin, 24, who brandished a crowbar, and getaway driver Patrick McDonagh, 28, were both arrested after police pursued their van across the Pennines to Manchester.

Carl Hargin

The duo were caught after a chase around a multi-storey car park and shopping complex, but Bradford Crown Court heard that two other suspects escaped and were thought to have fled back to Spain.

Patrick McDonagh

Judge Roger Scott was told that three men wearing balaclavas and armed with a sledgehammer, machete and a crowbar, went into the Westbourne Road, Marsh, branch of the HSBC on June 26.

There were three members of staff and three customers in the bank at the time and the trio used their weapons to force their way through the door into the staff area.

After putting some cash into a holdall the raiders then tried to get bank worker Paul Robinson to open the main safe.

The court heard he was unable to open it because of his fear and shock at what was happening and the robbers then forced a female colleague to use her PIN number to gain access to the safe.

The men bundled just over £300,000 into a holdall before leaving the bank and getting into a stolen Vauxhall Vectra.

The Vectra was driven to the Linthwaite area of Huddersfield where it was set on fire and the gang transferred to a waiting van.

The police's automatic number plate recognition system picked up the van as it headed towards Manchester.

Greater Manchester Police were alerted and the vehicle was pursued through red lights into the centre of Manchester, where it was driven through the barriers of a multi-storey car park.

Officers managed to arrest Hargin and McDonagh and the weapons and cash were recovered from the abandoned van.

Expectant father Hargin, of Broughton Lane, Salford, was jailed for eight years and eight months after he admitted involvement in the robbery.

Unemployed father-of-three McDonagh, of Chiselhurst Street, Cheetham Hill, Manchester, also pleaded guilty to robbery and was jailed for seven years and four months.

Judge Scott was told that both men had been recruited to take part in the raid by more sophisticated criminals.

Hargin was said to have wanted money to set up home with his pregnant partner while McDonagh needed cash to pay off debts.

Jailing the pair Judge Scott said it had plainly been a planned robbery with a reconnaissance trip a few days before.

“Both of you say there were others in the planning stage more sophisticated than you.

“They were certainly sophisticated enough to have disappeared out of the United Kingdom,’’ said the judge.

“They apparently are known to the police and are wanted for other offences of a similar type and category.’’