Real Crime: Securitas Robbery

Monday, 4 October 2010, 10:35PM – 11:35PM

On the morning of February 22 2006 news broke of the biggest cash robbery in British history after armed robbers made off with more than £53million from a cash depot in Kent. In this new programme, the staff who were held hostage during the raid reveal exactly what happened and Colin Dixon, the manager of the depot whose family were also held hostage, speaks for the first time about the terrifying ordeal, which he still believes he was lucky to survive. Even now, Colin fears for his safety, and his appearance is concealed as he speaks in this programme. The police who worked on the case also reveal the mistakes the robbers made which lead them to track them down.

Colin Dixon had had worked at the Securitas depot for 4 years. At around 5.30pm on Tuesday February 21 2006 he finished his shift began his drive home. During the journey Colin noticed what appeared to be a police car with flashing lights directly behind him and he pulled over. Men dressed as policeman handcuffed him and drove him deep into the Kent countryside.

He says: “I was blindfolded, my legs were tied together and I was handcuffed…I suppose I had a good idea what was going on, that a robbery was going to happen and I was going to be part of it.”

Meanwhile, robbers disguised as police had called at his family home. They told Lynn Dixon that Colin had been in a car crash – and they could take her to the hospital to visit him. Holding her child, she got into the car with the men. Once in the vehicle the robbers threatened to shoot her and her child if they didn’t co-operate. They took her to a white van where Colin was being held.

With a gun pointing at his wife and child, Colin Dixon felt he had no choice. Let the gang in the depot, or be killed alongside his family. He approached the depot’s control room – with one of the robbers dressed as a policeman and holding a gun. Colin says: “I said to the guy in the control room, ‘Look they have got my family just do as we’re told.’ The gun was brandished and he was tied up, then forced to let in the car and the other robbers into the building from there…I wanted my staff to be safe, I wanted my staff to not do anything silly that could put my family at risk.”

Seven gang members armed to the teeth confronted the 14 staff who had been getting on with work as normal including shift manager Alun. Alun remembers: “I was aware of Colin Dixon to my left and he said, ’Don’t do anything …’ And that was as far as I was concerned – the gun and with what he said – was when reality clicked in and you realised that this was for real.”

Colin says: “I was forced to let in the lorry into one of the loading bays. At that time I had no idea at all that my family were in the back of that lorry…All the staff were being tied up with plastic ties.”

Colin also soon realised that the gang had insider information: “They had got a list of names…so that to me indicated that not only had they got an insider but they knew exactly who was going to be in the building at that time.”

The robbers filled the lorry with £53 million in new and used bank notes before locking the staff in the metal cages normally used to store the money. Alun says: “They left, and we all just sat there in the cages not knowing whether they had actually left.”

One member of staff had a key to unlock the cage she was locked in and she was then able to help free the others before Alun called 999 and the police arrived.

The man charged with leading the investigation was Detective Chief Inspector Mick Judge, who set up an incident room and drafted in 300 officers to work on the investigation which would become known as Operation Deliver. Mick says: “We’re very well trained to deal with robberies and to deal with homicide and kidnap, but we’d never had anything of this scale and it brought challenges to us that we’d not faced.”

But the robbers had made a number of mistakes which led the police to more breakthroughs. The first was that they’d failed to properly dispose of the getaway vehicles, two of which registered to business premises linked to Stuart Royale, a local car dealer whose name had already been given to the investigation team. The next day police found 14 cages that had been used to move money during the robbery which had been dumped in a field near Maidstone.

That same day police discovered a white Transit van which contained £1.3m in cash as well as guns, balaclavas and body armour. The gang had made their second basic error – they’d left behind vital evidence for the police.

Mick Judge explains that this discovery lead to two more names who both did casual work for Stuart Royle: “Lea Rusha, and an associate of his Jetmir Bucpapa. Very quickly we were starting to get a lot of names coming forward.”

Within 48 hours of the raids Royle, Rusha and Bucpapa were all behind bars. On March 2 officers discovered £7million at a car salvage firm in South London linked to mechanic Roger Coutts. Mick Judge explains: “Roger Coutts was a name that was coming into our enquiry as having been involved. He was coming in as a name involved with other people from London.”

Mick’s team made enquiries into associates of Roger Coutts, which lead them to kickboxer Lee Murray and his best friend Paul Allen, both of whom had grown up on the same estate as Roger. Furthermore, Lee Murray was a gym buddy of Lea Rusha.

But the men were already living the high life in Morrocco. They’d been tracked down to the capital Rabat – and Moroccan officers jailed them for drugs possession while Detective Chief Inspector Mick Judge tried to get the pair extradited to face charges relating to the robbery.

Meanwhile, in June 2007 the trial of the other suspects began at the Old Bailey. The jury was told that the gang had an inside man who had helped them plan the robbery. It was Albanian immigrant Ermir Hysenaj a friend of Jetmir Bucpapa who had filmed the inside of the depot for the gang, using a secret camera hidden in his belt.

Defendant Michelle Hogg, who had helped disguise the robbers but thought the masks she made them were for use in a video game they were making, became the prosecution’s star witness. She identified Stuart Royle, Lea Rusha, Jetmir Bucpapa and Roger Coutts. Her evidence was vital for the prosecution. And on January 29 2008, after a seven month trial, all four men – along with inside man Hysenaj – were convicted of conspiracy to kidnap and rob.

The robbers were given indeterminate sentences with a minimum of 15 years while Hysenaj was jailed for 20 years. The Moroccan authorities extradited Paul Allen back to Britain and in January 2009 he was jailed for 18 years. Lee Murray stood trial in Morocco for his part in the robbery and was convicted.

For Colin Dixon, the effects of the robbery are still being felt. He and his family had to move away from their home and he also had to leave his job. But he says: “Things could have turned out so differently… yes we are lucky. Lucky to be here. Lucky to be alive.”