Heist 'could be UK's biggest'

2006-02-23 11:31

London - The manhunt was on for an armed gang who disguised themselves as police and stole a fortune from a British security depot after abducting its manager and his family on Thursday.

Police said the gang were highly sophisticated and had planned the raid in detail, while the hostages were subjected to a "terrifying ordeal".

The Bank of England said on Wednesday that at least £25m (about R265m) had been grabbed, but unconfirmed reports said that the final figure could be up to £40m, which would make it the biggest heist in British history by far.

The manager of the Securitas main cash depot in Tonbridge, south of London, was pulled over while driving on Tuesday evening by what he believed was an unmarked police car, said Kent Police.

They said a man wearing a high visibility jacket and a police-style hat got out of the vehicle, which had blue lights on it.

The manager, believing they were genuine police officers, got into their car, was handcuffed, threatened at gunpoint and told to co-operate or his family would be hurt.

Two other robbers disguised as police abducted his wife and son from their home, telling them the manager had been involved in an accident.

Threatened with handguns

Six men, some armed with handguns, then threatened and tied up around 15 staff at the depot of Securitas, a company providing security guards, alarm systems, and cash transportation services.

The gang loaded the stolen money into a white lorry before driving off in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

No one was hurt.

"They have all coped extremely well in the circumstances," said detective superintendent Paul Gladstone of Kent Police.

"This was clearly a robbery that was planned in detail over time - someone must have information that will help us."

Difficult to spend so much

A former senior Kent Police officer, who did not want to be named, said the gang might have had no idea they would net so much cash in used notes and bitten off more than they can chew.

"It will very quickly become apparent to the gang that it is so much it will cause them problems," he said.

"The case will be so high profile that it will be impossible for them to spend any of the money."

The Bank of England said that its governor had asked on Wednesday for a review of the security arrangements for the storage of banknotes.

"There is no cost at all to the Bank (of England) or the taxpayer" resulting from the heist, said a spokesperson for the central bank.

"We have already been reimbursed by Securitas for the initial estimate of £25mi," she said.

A raid at the Northern Bank's Belfast headquarters in December 2004 netted £26.5m, making it the biggest cash theft in British and Irish history at that time.

The amount stolen in the Tonbridge robbery is expected to dwarf that amount.

- AFP