What happened to the Securitas cash?

By Chris Summers
BBC News

Five people have been convicted of involvement in Britain's biggest cash robbery. Some of the money was recovered, but what has happened to the rest?

The money was first taken to Elderden Farm in Kent

Of the £53m the robbers took from the Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent, in the early hours of 22 February 2006, about £21m has been recovered.

The search continues for the remaining £32m, but Kent Police have their suspicions and the Bank of England and their insurers may soon take up the trail.

In 1983 robbers stole gold valued at £26m from the Brinks Mat depot near Heathrow airport.

See where the money was found

Three years later, Brinks Mat's insurers employed a team of experts led by lawyer Bob McCunn, who spent 20 years pursuing a number of people through civil courts both in Britain and abroad, and recovered £27m.

The team, which included "forensic accountants", found the money had been invested in property as far away as Spain, Florida and Kansas.

Civil action has not yet begun in the Securitas case but Mr McCunn said the robbers would be wrong to think the insurers had just written off the missing money.

Stashed

After the raid, the robbers drove their lorry, loaded with half a tonne of cash, most of it in £10 and £20 notes, to Elderden Farm near Staplehurst in Kent.

Outbuildings at the farm were used without the knowledge of the owner, John Fowler, who was later acquitted of all charges in connection with the robbery.

The money was loaded onto the truck in cages, which police later recovered on a neighbouring farmer's land.

These cages, which had contained the money, were later abandoned

There were seven robbers - several of who remain on the run - and Ermir Hysenaj, the "inside man" - but with such a vast amount of cash it would have been impossible to quickly divide it into eight equal shares.

Two sizeable caches were recovered within days.

More than £9m was found in a container on an industrial estate in Welling, south-east London. That money is believed to have been stashed there by Roger Coutts.

Another horde - about £8m - was found in a lock-up close to Lea Rusha's home in Southborough, Kent.

Smaller sums were found elsewhere, but £32m has vanished.

The Securitas money is believed to have been a mixture of new and used notes, and Mr McCunn said the used notes would be easier to dispose of because their serial numbers would not have been recorded.

You won't find many banks or accountants willing to accept £50,000 without knowing where it comes from Bob McCunn

But although you might find a car dealer willing to accept a few thousand pounds in used notes for a car, no banks would accept large sums in cash.

Mr McCunn said banking and accountancy regulations had been tightened considerably in the past 20 years, and the robbers would have found it impossible to launder large sums of cash in Britain.

Under the 2002 Proceeds of Crime Act, estate agents, solicitors, accountants, bankers and even casinos face prosecution if they knowingly - or negligently - allow crime proceeds to be laundered.

This can carry a jail term of up to five years and a heavy fine.

Nick Kochan, author of a book on laundering called The Washing Machine, said: "Any deposit over £10,000 will automatically trigger red flags with a bank."

The robbers almost certainly looked abroad.

In fact they may have already had their money laundering operation arranged in advance.

"If I was planning a big robbery like this," said Mr McCunn, "the first thing I would do is set up a good way of money laundering.

"You want to get the cash into the banking system in a country where no-one is going to be alert to its origins.

"The minute you pay it in, it stops being paper money and just becomes figures on a piece of paper. It becomes part of the bank's sterling reserves.

"The money goes into a huge pool and its identity is lost."

The trial heard considerable discussion about money being laundered in Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus.

No extradition treaty

Northern Cyprus has no formal extradition treaty with Britain and is not covered by European Union rules on money laundering.

The court heard suggestions that a man called Sean Lupton, who jumped bail in December 2006, may have been involved in laundering the money.

Money laundering and the black market are looked at very seriously in our country and I'm sure my government would be happy to co-operate if the British police asked for our help Serap Destegur Turkish Cypriot diplomat

Coutts, in his defence, sought to point the finger at two brothers, who he said were now in northern Cyprus.

His defence counsel, Graham Blower, said Hussein and Mustafa Basar - who were both of Turkish Cypriot origin - had left the UK shortly after the robbery. He said Hussein had worked for Mr X, the robbery's alleged mastermind, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

The trial heard some of the Securitas money had been invested in property. The Old Bailey also heard Coutts had visited Cyprus only a month before the raid to look at potential properties.

Mr McCunn said: "They might have bought property as an investment or they might just have bought property and then sold it again to launder the money through the banking system."

He said banks in northern Cyprus would have connections with banks in Turkey and the Middle East, and would have ready made conduits for laundering the Securitas proceeds.

Haven for criminals

Northern Cyprus has gained itself something of a reputation as a haven for fugitives from British justice.

Asil Nadir remains a fugitive in northern Cyprus

Tycoon Asil Nadir, who fled while awaiting trial for offences of dishonesty in connection with the collapse of his Polly Peck trading empire, has lived in northern Cyprus since 1993.

Last year Brian Wright was jailed for 30 years for running a multi-million pound ring smuggling drugs into Britain from South America.

Wright was discovered living in northern Cyprus by a BBC film crew in 2002.

He remained in his home in the village of Lapta until 2005 when he was arrested after travelling to Spain.

But Serap Destegur, a Turkish Cypriot diplomat based in London, rejected claims that northern Cyprus was an easy destination for fugitives and their ill-gotten gains.

She said she returned to Stansted from northern Cyprus recently on the same plane as Turkish Cypriot police officers who were bringing a handcuffed fugitive back to Britain.

Ms Destegur told the BBC: "Money laundering and the black market are looked at very seriously in our country and I'm sure my government would be happy to co-operate if the British police asked for our help."

She said all the main Turkish banks operated on the island, as well as a few international banks such as HSBC, which had recently set up a branch in Kyrenia.

Detective's vow

Mr Kochan pointed out that wherever the robbers laundered the money, they would have to accept making a huge loss on the £32m to turn it into "clean money".

"You may lose around 20% as the price of getting it cleaned. Another drawback is that there is an intrinsic lack of trust with dodgy money in the underworld so you find people ripping you off," he said.

Several people believed to have handled money from the Brinks Mat robbery ended up dead, with the suspicion being that they were killed for embezzling money from the raid.

Detective Chief Inspector Mick Judge has vowed to find the Securitas money: "Right at the start of the inquiry we made it clear that finding the money was one of the priorities for us - and that has not changed."

His team has frozen assets in Morocco and their inquiries will continue, he said.

[e-mail]

WHERE THE MONEY WENT

22 Feb 06 - The robbers got away with £52,996,760 from the Securitas depot in Tonbridge, and left behind a further £153,833,020 because there was no room in their lorry

24 Feb 06 - Two suitcases and a holdall, containing £1,370,500 was found in a van at Ashford International Hotel in Ashford, Kent

28 Feb 06 - Police found £105,600 in an orchard on a farm in Staplehurst, Kent

2 Mar 06 - Twelve holdalls containing £9,655,040 found in a container at ENR Cars in Welling, south-east London, which had been rented by Roger Coutts

5 Mar 06 - Detectives found another £8,601,990 in a lock-up in Southborough, Kent, and £1,350 was used to pay Keith Borer for painting a van. Mr Borer, who lived in Yalding, had no idea it came from the robbery

Later in 2006 - A further £1m was found in the boot of a car, but more details cannot be disclosed for legal reasons

Return to top