Full story of the 2006 Securitas depot heist in Tonbridge: 20 years on and £32m remains missing
At about 6.30pm on Tuesday, February 21, 2006, Colin Dixon[1] was making the familiar journey home to Herne Bay. By the time he actually saw his house again, the entire direction of his life had changed forever. He'd left his workplace not long before - the imposing yet character-free Securitas depot at Medway House in Vale Road, Tonbridge[2].
Sat next to a Kwik-Fit, overlooking the town's main railway line and less than 800 metres from the police station, few people paid it any interest - just another nondescript building.
But, as Mr Dixon was to discover to his cost, a group of men had designs on its contents; money, and millions upon millions of pounds of it. Within 24 hours, it would be making headline news around the world. Shortly after texting his wife, Lynn, that he was heading back to their home in Herne Bay - keen to see both her and their eight-year-old son - Mr Dixon saw the flashing blue lights of what he assumed was a police car in his rear-view mirror.
Alert to the inherent dangers of being a manager at the heavily fortified site, which held vast quantities of cash for the Bank of England, he and his wife swapped cars most weeks, while he varied his route to and from work. He'd worked there for four years. He pulled into the car park of the now-defunct Three Squirrels pub at Stockbury on the A249 as he headed towards the M2.
Expecting a routine check, two uniformed 'officers' approached him and told him he was being arrested for speeding offences.
Led from his car, he was put in the back of the Volvo 'police' car and handcuffed. Their real intentions were just about to become clear. Because this was the key first step in one of the most audacious heists in living history.
Within hours, that dull-looking building in Tonbridge would be raided in dramatic and violent fashion. ?53 million in cash stolen.
More than the equivalent of gold swiped in 1983's Brink's-Mat raid[3]. For Mr Dixon, 51 at the time, the nightmare was only just beginning. "You'll guess we're not policemen," his captors, wearing sophisticated latex masks to disguise themselves, told him as they pointed a gun at his head in the fake police car as it took off. "Don't do anything silly and nobody will be hurt."
Meanwhile, at the family home, another two men, disguised again as police, were knocking.
They told Mrs Dixon her husband had been in a car accident and she and their son were to accompany them. It quickly became apparent, once being driven away, they too were being kidnapped and threatened if they did not cooperate. Separately, they were transferred to Elderden Farm, near Staplehurst.
Reunited, albeit still tied up, it quickly became apparent why. At gunpoint, Mr Dixon - now fearing for the safety of his family - was quizzed about security at the Securitas depot. Later that night, he was bundled into a convoy of two cars and a seven-and-a-half tonne lorry and taken back to the Securitas depot.
Arriving with what appeared to be police - he was allowed through the gates - at just before 1.30am on February 22. The high steel fences and a string of CCTV cameras were powerless to prevent the intruders. Speaking in a rare TV interview for an ITV documentary in 2010, Mr Dixon said: "As we got close to the centre, I could really feel my heart pumping at that time - thinking what if things go right and what if things go wrong?
"If things go wrong, where are my family?
If it goes right, and if I can trust these people, would they keep to their word and release them?"
After using Mr Dixon's security card to gain access, seven masked and heavily armed men tied up 14 staff members on duty at the Securitas depot, as the crooks got to work on their audacious plan. "I told the guy in the control room," Mr Dixon explained, "'look, they have my family, just do what you're told' - and a gun was brandished. He had no choice but to let them in.
"I wanted my staff to be safe and not do anything silly that put my family at risk. It was frightening." All the staff were tied up with cable ties and made to lie on the floor.
Parking their truck in the loading bay, and utilising a forklift truck, the thieves stole money wholesale.
Millions upon millions of pounds - mostly ?10 or ?20 notes - loaded into their getaway vehicle in cages and even shopping trolleys. It is estimated they pinched half a tonne of money.
"I remember looking at my staff and thinking 'what have I done?'," Mr Dixon reflected. Forced to open the vault, he watched as the violent gang started to gather what they had come for.
Within the space of one hour and 15 minutes, the raiders stole ?53m, which they loaded into the lorry. More than ?150m was reluctantly left behind - but only because they couldn't fit anymore into their truck. The staff - fearing for their lives - were all moved into the cages normally used to hold the money and locked inside them.
As they were about to leave, a cage was wheeled in with Mr Dixon's family inside. Safe but terrified.
For the staff, they realised they would survive as the robbers fled, leaving them behind.
One member of staff had a key to the cage in which she was imprisoned. She escaped, freed the others, and they immediately called 999.
They had just borne witness to the biggest robbery in British history. Kent Police set up Operation Deliver - recruiting a team of 300 to work on the case. A reward of up to ?2m was offered for information.
Remarkably, just 24 hours after the raid, police had their first major breakthrough.
Michelle Hogg, then 32, was working at a hairdressing salon in South London - supplementing her work with private make-up work, mostly for those getting married.
Police received a tip-off that she may have been involved in creating the disguises used by the crooks who had pretended to be the police to kidnap Mr Dixon and his family. She had been asked by her boss to help regular client Lee Murray - a cagefighter - with some prosthetics. Both she and her boss believed it was in relation to a martial arts video game.
Murray and some of his friends went to her flat and moulds were taken so she could create bald caps along with prosthetic noses and chins. When police attended, they found in her bin latex masks like those used by the gang. Fearing for her life, Michelle Hogg refused to name those she had helped and was arrested - but would turn from defendant to key witness as the investigation continued.
Police now knew how the robbers had exposed their faces to the Dixons without revealing their true identities.
On that same day, they also found the van which had held the Dixons - they had been transferred from the fake police cars to the van en route to the farm ahead of the robbery - at the Hook and Hatchet pub in Hucking, near Detling.
Then two cars, disguised to look like undercover police vehicles, were found in Leeds, near Maidstone, and Mr Dixon's Nissan was discovered at the Cock Horse pub in Detling. The vehicles had been registered to a business connected to used car salesman Stuart Royle. He was now a prime suspect.
But police wanted to establish who he was working with before arresting him. Detectives were getting somewhere. Then another massive breakthrough.
A white Ford Transit was found in the car park of the Ashford International Hotel. Inside was ?1.3m - still in the wrappers police knew connected it to the raid - along with balaclavas and weapons. A treasure trove of forensic information.
The vehicle was linked to another martial arts expert - Lea Rusha, who lived in Southborough, Tunbridge Wells.
His DNA was found on a balaclava in the van, which in turn saw police look at his friend Jetmir Bucpapa. Both were linked to Royle.
Raiding the homes of Rusha and Bucpapa, police found shotgun shells and details of the Securitas depot at Rusha's home. Within 48 hours, Royle, Rusha and Bucpapa were arrested.
As the investigation started to accelerate, ?9.7m of the stolen cash was recovered - stashed in a container on an industrial estate in Welling. Another ?8.6m was found in a lock-up in Southborough, in Tunbridge Wells - close to the home of Rusha. Police also arrested Emir Hysenaj, who had been the 'inside man', getting a job at the Securitas depot and covertly filming inside the premises through a secret camera - purchased by Murray - in his belt.
He was arrested in Crowborough, just over the East Sussex border. He was a friend of Bucpapa.
Seperately, police located and searched Elderden Farm, where they discovered ?30,000 still in Securitas wrappers in the boot of a green Peugeot and a further ?105,600 hidden in a bin liner in an orchard. The recovery of both significant stashes of cash linked to Roger Coutts, who had worked at the Welling site and whose DNA was found on the cash in Southborough.
He had been long-time friends with Murray, one of, if not the, most famous cagefighter in the UK at the time. As police probed, they discovered Murray was childhood friends with another man of interest - Paul Allen. Murray, police discovered, was also friends with Rusha.
The link between the Kent and South London gang members was made. The net was beginning to close in. The question was, despite the speed of the investigation, could they intercept the money before it disappeared?
They also faced another challenge.
Both Murray and Allen had already fled the country - flying out to Morocco, where they splashed the cash on luxurious goods and lifestyle. Murray, police believed, was the lynchpin and the mastermind behind the raid. Police tracked Murray and Allen down to the Morocco capital Rabat in the June - four months after the raid.
Working with local police, they sprang into action as the pair visited a shopping mall - wrestling both to the ground and arresting them. At the villa they had been staying at, drugs were found. Both were arrested and jailed in the African country.
Now police needed to extradite them to face the music about their role in the Securitas heist. By June the following year, the legal cases against the other gang members started at London's Old Bailey. Jetmir Bucpapa, Roger Coutts, Emir Hysenaj, Stuart Royle and Lea Rusha all faced charges of conspiracy to rob, conspiracy to kidnap and conspiracy to possess firearms.
Crucial to the case was Michelle Hogg striking a deal - if the CPS dropped the charges she faced, she'd name names.
She strenuously denied any knowledge of the raid, but knew just who she had sorted the disguises for - believing it was for a video game they were creating. It meant police discovered just who had done what. Murray and Rusha had been disguised as police and kidnapped the Dixons.
On January 28, 2008, the jury returned guilty verdicts. Bucpapa, Coutts, Royle and Rusha were given indefinite sentences with an order to serve a minimum of 15 years. The next day, Hysenaj was sentenced to 20 years in prison with an order that he serve a minimum of 10.
Meanwhile, that same month, police finally managed to extradite Paul Allen from Morocco.
He stood trial in October of that year, charged with conspiracy to rob, conspiracy to kidnap and conspiracy to possess firearms - claims he denied. By January 2009, the jury was unable to reach a final decision and a retrial was ordered. Back in court in the September, Allen changed his plea to guilty on the three charges of conspiracy, but denied handling the firearms or entering the depot on the night of the raid.
He was given an 18-year sentence. Murray, however, remained in a Moroccan jail after extradition requests were denied. He held Moroccan citizenship through his father.
However, in 2010, UK authorities were able to convince the Moroccan government to put him on trial, in Morocco, for the Securitas raid. He was sentenced to 10 years for his role in the robbery. Kent Police complained it was too lenient and it was extended to 25 after a failed appeal.
Murray was thought to be the man captured on CCTV at the Securitas depot with a stopwatch as the raid took place - ensuring the raid ran to plan.
He'd fled the UK - along with Allen - four days after the crime. Travelling by ferry to Dover before driving through Europe. It emerged that he had left vital evidence a week before the robbery when he crashed his car - a yellow Ferrari - in South London.
Having fled the scene, police found two burner phones containing numbers of fellow gang members. He had also accidentally recorded a conversation with Lea Rusha about planning the raid. Today, Murray remains in a maximum security prison in Tiflet, Morocco.
Allen served just six years of his sentence and was released in 2016[4]. Having served three years on remand, it was deemed he had served half his sentence behind bars.
However, in 2019 he was shot at his home in north-east London in an attempted murder. Three men were found guilty[5], but Allen was left paralysed for life from the chest down. He is believed to now be confined to a wheelchair.
Bucpapa was released from jail in 2021 and deported to his native Albania. Hysenaj and Coutts are both believed to have also been released after serving their sentences. Rusha and Royle have parole board hearings this year which could see them released too.
All ordered by the court to repay the proceeds of the crime - barely any has been recovered.
Michelle Hogg has been given a new identity under the witness protection scheme. Colin Dixon, the Securitas manager kidnapped along with his family, originally moved to Australia with a new identity - only for one of his neighbours to recognise him[6] from coverage of the case. His whereabouts or identity today is not known.
Securitas sold its Tonbridge depot, which today is operated by cash-management company Vaultex, a company owned by Barclays and HSBC. Which begs the question, 20 years to the day since the heist was set in motion...just what happened to the rest of the money? While ?21m was recovered, ?32m was not.
Many believe it was swiftly distributed through international criminal networks - diverted to everywhere from Cyprus to the West Indies and the Middle East - laundered or even buried somewhere.
Question marks still hang over Sean Lupton, from Whitstable[7] - arrested originally as part of the investigation, he fled and has not been seen since. It is believed the amateur boxing coach was in Northern Cyprus - which has no extradition treaty with the UK - and may have played a key role in the operation. His son was killed in a freak jetski accident in Herne Bay[8] in 2017.
One thing most can agree on - the money is long gone and the chances of recovering any more of the ill-gotten gains all these years later is remote.
References
- ^ Colin Dixon (www.kentonline.co.uk)
- ^ Tonbridge (www.kentonline.co.uk)
- ^ gold swiped in 1983's Brink's-Mat raid (www.kentonline.co.uk)
- ^ released in 2016 (www.kentonline.co.uk)
- ^ Three men were found guilty (www.kentonline.co.uk)
- ^ only for one of his neighbours to recognise him (www.kentonline.co.uk)
- ^ Sean Lupton, from Whitstable (www.kentonline.co.uk)
- ^ son was killed in a freak jetski accident in Herne Bay (www.kentonline.co.uk)