JAILED: Businessman who organised terrifying raid on his elderly uncle's home

Raymond Dallimore masterminded the attack on his uncle Brian Butler's home in Westhoughton after Mr Butler asked his nephew to repay a £42,000 business loan, Bolton Crown Court heard.

Michael Goldwater, prosecuting, said Dallimore arranged the burglary on March 28 last year as a revenge attack to punish Mr Butler after receiving two letters from his solicitors about the debt.

Dallimore called Shaun Gastall, who he knew through his work as a tradesman, and Gastall then contacted associate Wayne Duckworth who knew “violent professional criminal” Craig Lister.

Later that night Gastall and Duckworth travelled to Liverpool to pick up Lister and two of his henchmen before returning to Westhoughton.

They burst into the house in Dicconson Lane at 10.30pm, with one man knocking Mr Butler's wife Enid to the floor and another grabbing Mr Butler in a headlock and holding a knife to his throat.

Lister repeatedly asked the pair — both in their 70s — 'where’s the money?' after which Mr Butler gave Lister £1,400 in cash from the sale of a van.

The gang then ordered Mr Butler to open a safe before saying 'I want the bloody guns'.

Mr Goldwater said the gang knew there were guns in the house, because Mr Butler is a deerstalker. He added that only close family members knew about the safe.

They made off with 10 shotguns and 1,000 rounds of ammunition, worth about £10,000, as well as jewellery.

The gang stole Mr Butler’s Volkswagen van to use as a getaway vehicle. It was later found in Deane after being set on fire.

The court was told that Lister had cut himself during the raid, which later led police to tracing his DNA.

The gang left Mr Butler tied up in the bathroom with his wife on the floor.

Lister was later arrested on a boat belonging to Duckworth.

When Duckworth was arrested he tried to hide his mobile phone.

The court was told that the conviction had been a disaster for Dallimore’s family, and that his wife had since had acid thrown in her face, and that the family had received other threats.

Dallimore has no previous convictions, and served in the Royal Navy in the 1970s before completing a degree in psychology.

Sentencing Dallimore to 12-and-a-half years in jail Judge Timothy Clayson said: “You knew the victims were vulnerable, and you wanted them hurt. Nothing other than a lengthy custodial sentence is appropriate.”

Duckworth, aged 33, of Park Road, Westhoughton, received a nine year sentence, and Gastall, of Marple Crescent, Leigh, was sentenced to six years.

Dallimore, aged 59, of Church Street, Westhoughton, and Duckworth were convicted of conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary following trial, and the court was told that both still deny any involvement in the raid. Gastall previously pleaded guilty to the same charge.

Dallimore was also sentenced to 10 months in prison for the production of cannabis.

Det Sgt Richard Castley said: "There can be absolutely no excuse or justification for subjecting this elderly couple to a terrifying ordeal in their own home.

"They were threatened with a knife, an axe and forcibly imprisoned in their own bathroom while the intruders ransacked their house and understandably were extremely shaken up and distressed for some time afterwards.

"I hope seeing the offenders convicted and sentenced for their violent actions gives the victims some sense of justice and help them to move forward with their lives knowing this gang is behind bars."

After the hearing, a spokesman for Mr and Mrs Butler said justice had been done.

Lister, aged 33, of Hale Road, Liverpool, also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit aggravated burglary. He will be sentenced on August 4.