A ram-raiding gang caused £100,000 damage to the Coop shop at the Liverton Trago Mills superstore when they used a 4x4 to smash through the window and drove it into a cash machine.

Part of the roof of the shop collapsed as the Mitsubishi Shogun was crashed into the ATM repeatedly in an attempt to uproot it from the floor.

The front of the machine was smashed off during the attack but the gang left empty-handed after being unable to reach the money inside its internal safe, Exeter Crown Court was told.

The damaged Shogun was left abandoned in the wreckage of the shop as the raiders fled.

Dylan Taylor, aged 43, has gone on trial accused of being one of an unknown number of intruders who tried to steal the ATM from the Coop at the Trago store near Newton Abbot in the early hours of December 10 last year.

His DNA was recovered from a bloodstain inside the remains of the cash machine and could only have got there after it was damaged, the jury have been told.

Taylor, of Lichfield Avenue, Torquay, denies burglary. He says he was asleep at his mother’s home in Torbay when it took place.

Mr James Taghdissian, prosecuting, said Taylor had bought the 4x4 Shogun for £895 cash after answering an advertisement on Gumtree on an untraceable mobile phone.

He said the seller had given police a positive identification of Taylor as the buyer during a video identification procedure. The car was used to ram the shop at around 2am.

Mr Taghdissian said: ‘This case is about a ram raid carried out with the intention of stealing money from the cash machine inside the Coop.

‘The Shogun which had been bought hours earlier was driven through the front entrance of the shop and repeatedly driven at the cash machine in an effort to dislodge it from it mounting and remove it so the money inside could be taken.

‘It could not be dislodged so an effort was made to get at the money by attacking the internal safe. The fascia of the cash machine came off when it was rammed and an attempt was made to get at the money.

‘The burglars ended up making off empty-handed, but £100,000 worth of damage was done to the store because part of the roof collapsed around the vehicle.’

Forensic scientists found two blood spots on the inside workings of the cash machine which arose from direct contact rather than dripping.

Mr Taghdissian said Taylor claimed he had used the machine earlier to take out cash and told the police in an interview he was at home and nowhere near the scene of the ram raid.

The trial continues.