A MAN wanted in connection with a series of armed robberies hid up a tree before being cornered by police, a court heard.

David Patmore is one of eleven people facing jail for the robberies on jewellery shops - including two in the North-East and one in North Yorkshire.

Up to £1.6million worth of stock was taken in the carefully-planned and executed raids at Market Cross stores in Middlesbrough, nearby Yarm and Fattorinis in Harrogate.

Teesside Crown Court heard today how some of the hold-ups were orchestrated by a lag using illegally-smuggled mobile phones from a prison in Liverpool.

Ian Ogden was said to have played a central role in the conspiracies - putting together criminals from Teesside and the north west - while he was behind bars.

Manchester-based "professional robber" Patmore hid up a tree and when police cornered him he shouted: "I'll be down in a minute I just don't want you to have my phone."

Patmore had rammed police drivers who were trying to intercept him in Harpurhey, north Manchester, and drove at more than 70mph to escape with his lights off in the dark.

He crashed into two cars before abandoning the stolen Audi Q3, ran into the grounds of a church and hid up a tree, prosecutor Richard Bennett told Judge Tony Briggs.

Greater Manchester Police's Critical Wanted Team were looking for him in December 2014 in connection with a "large number of serious offences", the court heard.

Patmore has since admitted:

:: conspiracy to rob the jewellers in Yarm, where second-hand designer watches worth £500,000 were taken in a raid by masked men who burst in and methodically smashed glass cabinets.

:: conspiracy to steal, by helping two raids by a Manchester-based gang on a cash machine in Bingley, West Yorkshire, and by purchasing tools used in a robbery in November 2014 on Fattorini's jeweller in Harrogate. The Crown accepted Patmore did not go on the raid which netted the gang between £600,000 and £1m.

:: conspiracy to rob a house in Blackley, Manchester where two men were threatened and a motorbike and Audi S5 were stolen, and a "cash in transit" raid at the Nationwide Building Society in Sandbach, Cheshire.

:: making counterfeit coins.

Watches worth more than £110,000 were taken in the Middlesbrough robbery in January last year before security smoke filled the town centre shop and the raiders fled.

Anthony Northmore, 25, and Scott Northmore, 20, both of Hampden Way, Thornaby, near Stockton, have admitted conspiracy to commit robbery.

The others in the dock are Patmore, 32, of HMP Frankland, Durham; Shaun Booth, 29, whose address on the court file is HMP Manchester; Ogden, 27, of HMP Forest Bank; Shaun Hughes, 29, of HMP Stoke Heath; Liam Wright, 25, of HMP Strangeways; Jamie Scott, 28, of Benville Walk, Manchester; Joseph Donovan, 25, of Copthall Lane, Manchester; Christopher Worgan, 32, of Walker Road, Manchester; and Billy-Jo Thompson, 25, of Kingfisher Drive, Bury.

The hearing is expected to finish tomorrow when all the men are sentenced.