A German court has sentenced a 25-year-old man from Utrecht to four years and three months in jail for his role in blowing up two ATM machines in the German towns of Alsdorf and Flörsdorf, news agency ANP said on Wednesday.

Mohammed Al B is said to be a member of the ‘Audi mob’, a gang of some 250 Dutchmen of Moroccan origin who are involved in blowing up ATMs in the German border areas. They take their name from the Audis they steal to use as getaway cars.

Al B and his fellow gang members are said to have netted €220,000 in the two raids. In court in Aachen, he denied any involvement in the blasts but did admit to stealing an Audi and selling it to someone else.

German banks close to the Dutch border are tightening up security following a surge in attacks on cash dispensers, thought to have been orchestrated by Dutch gangs.

In the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia there have been 80 attempts to blow up or crash into ATMs so far this year, compared with 67 in 2015 as a whole. In Lower Saxony there have been 67, compared with just 28 in 2015.