Six face trial over bank robbery

The Royal Bank of Scotland in Home Street, Tollcross was robbed. Picture: Jane Barlow

Alistair Oliver, 30, Gordon McLay, 31, Jason Yendall, 29, Aaron Brannan, 24, Jason Britton, 23 and Jack Turner, 21, are accused of robbing Royal Bank of Scotland in Home Street, Tollcross, of £19,675 on October 2 last year.

The same men will also face trial for a raid at Glasgow’s Argyll Arcade, in which hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of watches were stolen on September 24 last  year.

All six accused appeared in the dock yesterday at the High Court in Glasgow for a pre-trial hearing, where Lord Turnbull fixed a trial for October.

The men are alleged to have gone in to the RBS branch with their faces masked and carrying a machete and axes or similar implements and assaulting Kelly Rinaldi and Ross McMullen.

It is claimed they brandished the items at them, demanded money from them, threatened to kill them, pushed Miss Rinaldi and robbed them of the money.

They are also accused of having their faces masked at the time of the Argyll Arcade robbery, and of carrying a baseball bat, sledgehammer, pick axe handle and axes or similar implements and smashing a door at the shop.

It is claimed that at an area of land in Musselburgh, being aware of the crimes they committed and to “avoid detection, arrest and prosecution”, they burned clothing they had worn while carrying out their crimes.

It is alleged this was an attempt to pervert the course of justice.

Britton also faces three road traffic charges including dangerous driving on streets in Edinburgh on October 2 last year.

All six face a string of theft charges from addresses in Edinburgh, Musselburgh and Haddington on September 23 and 24, 2014.