One of the two Briton's killed in a horror car crash in Holland was a young father, it has emerged.
Michael Bellis, 21, was a bricklayer's apprentice from Kirkby, Merseyside, where he lived with his girlfriend and their child.
He died alongside his close friend Ben O'Brien, 27, also from Kirkby, when a getaway driver lost control and hit the central reservation of the A12 motorway outside Utrecht at high speed on Saturday.
Mr Bellis was killed instantly at the scene after the car overturned, while O'Brien was taken to hospital, but died the next day from multiple injuries.
A third man, James Shirley, has been identified as one of two injured survivors, and remains in hospital. The other survivor, whose situation is said to be critical, is still unnamed.
A 25 year-old man from London, who was also found dead at the scene, has yet to be formally identified by his family.
The wreckage of the car was found to contain a haul of ink-stained bank notes.
It was only then that Dutch police made the link between the bank notes and the robbery of an ATM in nearby Driel a short time earlier.
Dutch Officers confirmed that in the early hours of Saturday morning, an explosive device had been used to access cash from inside the machine, which was in a small supermarket in the local village of Driel.
The machine contained an anti-theft device, designed to spoil bank notes with ink in the event of a robbery.
A spokesman for Dutch police said: "On Saturday morning, at 3am, we got a call that there was a burglary in a shop.
"We arrived to find a mobile ATM broken into. We began an investigation in the surrounding area, but found nothing.
"After 20 minutes, we were told about a bad accident on the motorway where our colleagues found banknotes with paint on them.
"They were driving in the direction of Utrecht and it looks like they’ve tried to take a sharp exit turn at Maarsbergen at high speed.
"There was no pursuit of the car by police. It was only when we found the bank notes in the vehicle that a connection was made with the ATM robbery.
"During the weekend we contacted the local British police force to get in touch with families and they have come here to Holland.
"We don’t know why they were here in Holland, particularly Driel, which is a very small village with only 300 citizens."
bellos mum, kirkby around 1 month, 1 week ago