'No retrial' for robbery accused

Graham Huckerby spent two years in prison

A security driver and former police officer wrongly jailed over a £6.6m armed robbery will not face a retrial.

Graham Huckerby, 45, was jailed in 2002 after a court found him guilty for his alleged part in a raid on a security van in Salford, Greater Manchester.

But he walked free in December last year after the Court of Appeal quashed his conviction.

The Crown Prosecution Service said on Thursday that it did not intend to seek a retrial.

Mr Huckerby, from Prestwich, Manchester, was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

His solicitor Maslen Merchant said Mr Huckerby broke down in tears when he told him that there would not be retrial.

Money not recovered

He said: "There was a long pause, then he broke down and said 'I can't believe it'."

The former Pc was the driver of the Securicor van and alleged to be the "inside man", conspiring with robbers in the raid, police claimed.

In his appeal Mr Huckerby said he was suffering from post-traumatic stress caused by involvement in an earlier robbery when a colleague was stabbed and hit with a sledgehammer.

The stress led him to break security rules and let the raiders into his van, the appeal court were told. The stolen money has never been recovered.

Blindfolded

The raid, in July 1995, was on a van making a delivery to the Midland Bank Clearing Centre in Salford.

A gang of armed men told Mr Huckerby that his colleague had been taken hostage and that if he did not let them on to the van the robbers would "blow his head off".

Mr Huckerby was left tied up and blindfolded.

A police spokesman said: "Greater Manchester Police and the Crown Prosecution Service have considered the Court of Appeal judgment and after reviewing the case again, we no longer believe there is any realistic prospect of conviction."