Securitas heist ‘inside man’ still hasn’t paid a penny back of £250,000 spoils
The inside man in the £53 million Securitas depot raid has not paid back a penny of the money he owes for his part in the audacious heist.
Ermir Hysenaj was given a confiscation order of £250,383 but his spoils from Britain’s biggest cash robbery remain unpaid, newly-released data shows.
The depot worker’s accomplices Jetmir Bucpapa, Roger Coutts and Lea John Rusha returned just £1 each, according to records disclosed to Metro.co.uk.
Used car salesman Stuart Royal paid back the largest amount — turning in £50,000 of the £2 million that he was ordered to pay to the crown.
He is followed by former cage fighter Paul Raymond Allen, who gave back £420 – more than the £380 he had originally been told to pay by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
The robbers were part of a heavily armed gang which struck in the early hours of February 22, 2006 at the Securitas cash vault in Tonbridge, Kent.
Wearing balaclavas and wielding firearms including a Skorpion sub-machine gun and at least one pump-action shotgun, the seven men tied up terrified employees before locking them in cash cages.
The gang abducted depot manager Colin Dixon as he drove to work — with his wife and son being kidnapped separately at the family home — in the hours leading up to the heist.
In the aftermath, Kent Police recovered around half the money— including £8 million in Welling, London, and £9 million in Southborough, Kent — and tracked down most of the culprits as they made dozens of arrests.
But around £32 million remains unaccounted for, with some of the cash thought to have been transferred to Cyprus and Morocco.
After a trial in 2007, Stuart Royle, Roger Coutts, Lea Rusha and Jetmir Bucpapa were all jailed for life for their part in the robbery.
Emir Hysenaj, an Albanian man who took belt-loop footage of the depot’s layout while working there, was also locked up for 20 years.
Hysenaj, aged 27 and of East Sussex when he was sentenced, began working at the depot two months before the raid and was said in court to have been linked to the gang through fellow Albanian Bucpapa.
Gang members Lee ‘Lightning’ Murray, a mixed martial arts fighter regarded as a ‘Mr Big’, and close friend Paul Allen tried to flee to Morocco.
But the London gangsters’ high rolling lifestyle soon caught the attention of the authorities and they were arrested four months later.
Allen was extradited back to the UK where he was given a 10-year sentence while Murray, whose dad is Moroccan, was originally given the same tariff in the north African country before it was upped to 25 years after the original stretch was judged to be too lenient. Allen has since been released.
Police made at least 36 arrests during their wide-ranging investigation — and two of the suspects remain at large.
Keyinde ‘Kane’ Patterson, one of Murray’s London friends who is thought to have worn a police uniform disguise during the raid, was last thought to be somewhere in the Caribbean.
Another suspected accomplice, Sean Lupton, who was arrested in 2006 for conspiracy to commit robbery, was last year reported to be in Cyprus.
Howard Sounes, the author of Heist, which tells the true story of the raid, told Metro.co.uk: ‘My understanding is that the bulk of the stolen cash was almost immediately divided up and laundered, mostly abroad, via professional criminals in the black market.
‘There was never any realistic prospect of getting that money back.
‘Some of the banknotes that the men who were caught had hidden away in the UK, such as in lock-ups, cupboards or stuffed into sports bags, was recoverable, but the vast majority was laundered.
What is the Securitas heist?
The Securitas raid is the largest cash robbery in British history.
Between February 21 and February 22, 2006, heavily armed robbers tied up 14 members of staff at a Securitas cash depot in Tonbridge, Kent.
The depot manager, Colin Dixon, and his wife and eight-year-old son, were also abducted and locked in cash cages during the robbery.
In total, £53,116,760 in Bank of England cash notes were stolen.
Seven men were subsequently jailed with collective sentences of 100 years for charges including kidnap, firearms offences and robbery.
Some £21 million has been recovered by police but the £32 million still missing is believed to have been spent or be untraceable.
‘There was also the cash that Lee Murray and Paul Allen invested in real estate in Morocco.
‘But once the cash was given to, say, Criminal X in Amsterdam, and he had given back a suitcase of clean Euros at a vastly disproportionate rate, it was the end of the story.
‘The Euros could then be spent on Rolexes, Ferraris, real estate or hamburgers.
‘In this way millions of pounds of Sterling disappeared into the underworld never to be seen again.’
The confiscation figures were released by the CPS after a Freedom of Information Act request by Metro.co.uk.
Rusha, Bucpapa and Coutts paid back the nominal amounts after a judge ruled in 2010 that there was sufficient evidence to show that the money recovered at three locations was their share of the proceeds.
Eight years later, a judge in a closed court ruled that Allen should not have to pay back more than the £420.
Detective Superintendent Gavin Moss, Head of Major Crime at Kent Police, said: ‘Whilst the 2006 Securitas robbery is not currently a live investigation, it remains subject to regular review and we continue to appeal for anyone with information to come forward.
‘In the 18 years since the crime was committed, we have made enquiries around the world to both identify those responsible and recover the outstanding cash that was taken and we will continue to act on any new evidence that may come to light in the future.
‘Seven people were convicted for their roles in the kidnap and robbery, and around £20 million of the stolen money has been recovered to date.
‘In the time that has passed since the incident it is clear that a large amount of the remaining money is now untraceable, although we are continuing to explore opportunities via the Proceeds of Crime Act to seize assets from those involved.
‘Anyone with any new evidence can report it to us online at www.kent.police.uk/report.’
In its answer to the request, the CPS said: ‘A “Confiscation Order” is an order made against a person which creates a personal liability on the part of that person to pay a sum of money to HM Courts and Tribunals Service.
‘By statute, a Confiscation Order is enforceable by HMCTS as a fine.’
MORE : Worker’s forehead ‘peeled off’ after ‘jugging’ at top security jail
Have you got a story you wish to share? Contact josh.layton@metro.co.uk