TWO bungling crooks who were part of a plot to target a security guard as he collected takings from a fast food restaurant were caught when one left his fingerprint behind.

The guard was threatened with a crowbar as he left a branch of McDonald’s with a cashbox containing £17,000 in April last year.

But one of the gang, Jamie Bird, left fingerprints in two getaway cars.

Now the 28-year-old, from Birchtrees Drive, Kitts Green, has been jailed along with accomplice Kieran Donovan, 24, from Greenwood Avenue, Acocks Green.

Both men were locked up for nine-and-a-half years at Birmingham Crown Court having been found guilty of conspiracy to rob following a two-week trial.

Investigators said a “high degree” of planning was carried out ahead of the raid.

The gang placed two getaway cars in strategic locations and carried out a practice run before ambushing the guard as he left the restaurant in Coventry Road, Sheldon, on April 20 last year.

They forced him to hand over the cash box and fled along an alleyway and into a waiting van and later switched to a Renault car. But Bird left his fingerprints on a plastic bag found in the van and the log book of the Renualt.

Donovan was tracked down because he had used a mobile phone to speak with Bird in the run-up to the raid and was also linked to the van.

After the sentences were passed, Det Con Lawrence Meade said the fact the guard had not been hurt had not saved Bird and Donovan from long jail terms.

He said: “These are very pleasing sentences.

“It shows offenders run the risk of being put behind bars for a long time for these types of crimes even if they don’t use physical violence.

“They removed number plates from the van but members of the public witnessed the exchange and noted the registrations.”