Cage fighters 'plotted £53m heist'

Updated 19.14 Tue Oct 07 2008

Two cage fighters planned Britain's biggest ever robbery then fled to Morocco to live off the proceeds, a court heard.

Martial arts experts Lee Murray, 29, and Paul Allen, 30, plotted the armed heist at the Securitas cash storage facility in Tonbridge, Kent, which netted the robbers £53 million.

Depot manager Colin Dixon and his family were kidnapped and taken hostage while 14 staff were held at gunpoint during the terrifying raid

Depot manager Colin Dixon and his family were kidnapped and taken hostage while 14 staff were held at gunpoint during the terrifying raid.

Within days of the robbery the fighters fled to Africa via Amsterdam to begin a new life, the Old Bailey heard.

Murray had been the gang's "leading light", while his friend Allen had "played an important part throughout", jurors were told.

Allen had to be extradited back to the UK to face trial, but Murray remains in a Moroccan jail.

Sir John Nutting, QC, prosecuting, told how seven robbers raided the cash bunker on the night of February 21 and 22, 2006.

Mr Dixon was pulled over on Detling Hill, outside Maidstone, and taken to isolated Elderden Farm nearby, where he was forced to reveal details of security measures at gunpoint.

Murray and Rusha, disguised as police officers, wearing prosthetics and driving a mocked-up squad car, carried out the kidnap, said Sir John.

Other gang members dressed as policemen went to his home where his wife Lynn, 46, was waiting for her husband with their child tucked up in bed.

The robbers told Mrs Dixon her husband had been involved in a traffic accident and they had come to take her to the hospital in which he was being treated.

Fooled by the story, she agreed to go with them but was taken to the farm at gunpoint and held for hours.

In the early hours of the morning, masked gunmen burst into the Tonbridge depot, where 14 employees working the late shift were menaced and handcuffed.

The gang's inside man Emir Hysenaj had given them information on the security systems after wearing a pin-sized camera to film the inside of the building. In little more than an hour the gang drove off with the cash in a seven-ton lorry.

Stuart Royle, 48, Jetmir Bucpapa, 26, Lea Rusha, 35, Hysenaj, 28, Roger Coutts, 30, were convicted for their parts in the robbery after a trial earlier this year.

Allen and Michael Demetris, 32, deny conspiracy to rob, conspiracy to kidnap and conspiracy to possess firearms.