Three men sentenced last week for a series of armed robberies across the North West of England were also members of a violent neo-Nazi gang linked to the terror group National Action HOPE not hate can reveal.
Three members of the ‘North West Infidels’ were part of a four-man gang that committed eight robberies that took place between November 2021 and April this year at convenience stores in Preston, Leyland, Chorley and Warrington. The gang’s leader, Daniel Lewis from Wigan should be particularly well known the HOPE not hate readers, as for years he led a violent, misogynist campaign against women in the town where he also doubled for a while as the leader of the local National Front.
A combination of the group of four men would burst into shops wearing balaclavas and masks, brandishing weapons and threatening staff. They made off with at least £10,000 each time and in their wake left innocent shop workers shaken and distressed.
The four were nabbed as part of Operation Pintail and were jailed for more than half a century at Preston Crown Court last week.
Lewis, 35, of Battersby Street, Ince, pleaded guilty to seven robberies and was jailed for 19 years. Daniel Holding, 33, of Arley Close, New Springs, confessed to involvement in six robberies and was sent down for 15 years. Holding had a string of previous convictions – as did Lewis, related to their membership of the neo-Nazi drug gang known as the North West Infidels (NWI).
A third member of the gang Matthew Lowe, 33, of Petticoat Lane, Incem pleaded guilty to two robberies, and was given a seven-year term. Lowe was another regular on far – right demonstrations around the North West, whilst the fourth man Anthony Heaton, 33, of Marshall Avenue, Warrington, admitted to five of the robberies and was sentenced to 13 years behind bars. He is as yet unknown to us.
The North West Infidels (NWI) were a violent splinter group from the English Defence League (EDL), who became notorious not just for their violence but also their drug dealing. In 2016 one of their number, Michael Kearns, was jailed for his part in a £5m drug deal.
The group were particularly close to the terror gang National Action and as well as being drug dealing Nazis, they held a particular penchant for violence against women – in particular their own partners.
Since the demise of National Action and a series of their own legal problems, the NWI has been particularly quiet of late. They had been linked to a series of drug relate deaths across the North West which included the deaths of some of their own members. The gang’s founder and leader, Shane Calvert would appear to now work as a much heralded “street chef” in his home town of Blackburn – despite never renouncing his views.
As well as providing muscle and drugs to the wider far right the NWI also pumped in large amounts of cash to groups like the National Front, National Action and even the British National Party for a time. The NWI were particularly close to National Action paedophile Jack Renshaw, providing security at meetings he spoke at. Renshaw was convicted for a particular speech he gave to one NWI rally on Blackpool beach in 2016.
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