Jailed robbery 'insider' was policeman

Power (left) and Huckerby (right) were secretly filmed

A former policeman has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for his part in one of Europe's largest armed robberies.

Security van driver Graham Huckerby, 42, was paid to allow masked gunmen to kidnap him and steal £6.6m from the Midland Bank Clearing Centre in Salford in 1995.

At an earlier hearing, Huckerby, who joined Greater Manchester Police in 1992 before leaving them for Securicor after being injured, was found guilty of conspiracy to rob.

On Tuesday at Manchester Crown Court, Judge Peter Lakin told him: "'You were the inside man."

The conspiracy behind it involved meticulous planning and attention to detail

Judge Peter Lakin

Another man, James Power, 60, of Hornby Street, Bury, Greater Manchester, was also convicted of conspiracy to rob and jailed for 14 years.

Power was described as the "handler" for Huckerby, who comes from Clifton Road, Prestwich, Greater Manchester.

The men were among 12 people arrested in August 1999 after Operation Volga, a four-year-long international police investigation.

During the raid, gunmen used ladders to scale a wall next to a railway line and dropped into the yard of the banking centre.

They took Huckerby's Transit van and left him masked with tape and handcuffed to railings.

Huckerby later told police he had been ''terrified".

A total of 29 blue pillow case-sized cash bags were taken.

Huckerby had also worked for the Inland Revenue

Sentencing Huckerby, Mr Lakin said: ''This was a highly professional well planned and carefully executed robbery.

"The conspiracy behind it involved meticulous planning and attention to detail.

''There is doubt it was masterminded by more sophisticated criminals but you knew precisely what you were doing and played your role."

The haul of cash and cheques has never been recovered, and a reward for information leading to its retrieval is still on offer.

Detective Sergeant Allan Donoghue from Greater Manchester Police said: "Although this crime was carried out seven years ago this proves our determination to track down and bring people who commit crimes like this to justice.

"I would like to remind the public there is still an unclaimed reward of a quarter-of-a-million pounds in connection with this crime."