A REWARD has been offered to help to catch armed robbers who snatched tens of thousands of pounds in a pre-Christmas bank raid.

The £15,000 sum will be paid to anyone supplying information which leads to the arrest of the three or four-man gang who struck at the Sherburn Terrace branch of Lloyds/TSB in Consett, on Thursday, December 18.

It is thought the robbery may be linked with other similar raids and detectives on Tyneside are working with colleagues investigating the Consett raid, examining possible connections with a similar pre-Christmas armed raid at a Lloyds TSB branch on the outskirts of Gateshead.

A three or four-strong masked gang struck at the Rowlands Gill branch on Friday, December 5. They threatened staff before making off with an undisclosed sum of cash.

In a further incident in Rowlands Gill, three masked offenders attacked a subpostmaster at a store and Post Office on Monday, December 29, at about 3pm.

The raid at Consett, in which a member of staff was injured, took place at 5pm as the premises was closing. The three raiders fled in a dark saloon-type car, believed to carry an old-style W-prefix, and possibly driven by a further gang member.

Anyone with information should call the incident room on (0191) 375 2430, or Crimestoppers on (0800) 555111.