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Kent Securitas raid: It's payback time

Securitas raid still
Securitas raid still
Secruitas depot, Tonbridge
Secruitas depot, Tonbridge

Six men convicted of the biggest cash robbery in UK history have been ordered to pay back almost £3.5m to the Crown.

Cash from the 2006 Securitas raid in Tonbridge will go into a crime-fighting fund set up by central Government.

A armed gang relieved the cash depot of more than £50m after kidnapping the family of an employee.

A hearing at Woolwich Crown Court ordered the men to pay back the money within six months or face further time in jail.

Detective Inspector Mark Fairhurst said: "Six men were convicted of their part in a robbery which involved the kidnap of a woman and child and keeping them and the Securitas employees hostage at gun point.

"It is important to ensure that those involved in this horrific crime do not benefit financially.'

In October last year the last of the men to be convicted, Paul Allen, admitted his part in the conspiracy to rob the depot and also accepted that he had benefited by £1.9 million. Judge Mr Justice Penry-Davey accepted that assets to the value of £1.231 million were available to be confiscated.

Another man, Stuart Royle, claimed that the funds benefited from the robbery were beyond his control or reach. However, he was ordered to pay £2m to the Crown.

The Judge also ordered that there was enough evidence to show that almost £20m found at a lock-up in Southborough, a Transit van at Ashford International and ENR Cars of Welling was the proceeds which Lea Rusha, Jetmir
Bucpapa and Roger Coutts had obtained from the robbery.

He went on to state that it would be disproportionate to include them within the allocation of unrecovered money from the robbery and made the three men subject of nominal confiscation orders.

Five of the men were found guilty following a trial in 2008 and Paul Allen, pleaded guilty in October last year. Together they will serve more than 150 years.

Police have been trying to extradite a further man from Morocco, with no success thus far.

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