Thieving cads posing as policemen managed to steal an entire night’s gig takings from iLiKETRAiNS in Italy last week.

The audacious raid happened in Piacenza in the early hours of Sunday morning, where the band were pulled over by an unmarked police car at 2am.

“Two ‘police officers’ in full uniform with badges said they were doing a routine check,” the band’s manager, Dominic Brownlow, told DiS, “and then asked if they could see any cash they may have earned at the gig as there were counterfeit notes in the area.

“As soon as they saw the money-bag, they grabbed it and ran into the waiting car.”

“We were pulled over by two guys flashing a police badge at three in the morning on an Italian motorway,” continues guitarist and lead vocalist Dave Martin. “One of them came to the window with a gun in his holster and yelling in aggressive Italian. He asked to see our passports and if we had guns or drugs.

“The whole crew was searched and in the ensuing confusion they ran off with the night’s takings. It was a very slick operation and sickening to lose so much cash.”

How much did they make away with? €3,000, apparently, which equates to roughly £2,414.34, if this abacus is correct. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined there to be such a demand for gloomy, historically-informed Yorkshire post-rock in northern Italy.

“No-one was hurt but pride [was] damaged,” Brownlow continues, getting back to the point. “The police have known about the trick for ages and have never caught them.”

Seems we can’t just tarnish the Italians with this, either – a similar thing happened to former Drowned in Sound Recordings artists Jeniferever when they were in Spain late in 2006. Wretches.

iLiKETRAiNS continue their European tour in Frankfurt, Germany tonight - find details of forthcoming shows at their MySpace here.