Profile: Ermir Hysenaj

Five men have been convicted in connection with Britain's biggest robbery. Ermir Hysenaj was one of those involved in the theft of £53m from the Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent, in February 2006.

Ermir Hysenaj arrived in the UK as an illegal immigrant

Some people might find it slightly surprising that Securitas employed an illegal immigrant, who had been given permission to stay in Britain temporarily, for a job working in a depot that dealt with hundreds of millions of pounds in cash every day.

Considering he was being paid only £5.50 an hour, the temptation to become the "inside man" must have been overpowering, and Hysenaj succumbed.

Ermir Hysenaj was born in the autumn of 1979 in what was then the hardline communist state of Albania, ruled over by the Stalinist leader Enver Hoxha.

The family lived in the mountainous north of the country and his father was a mechanic. Hysenaj was 13 when the communist regime fell and Albania began its transition to democracy.

An intelligent child, after school he went on to university in the capital, Tirana, and studied electronic engineering.

'Kosovan refugee'

The impoverished student decided to take advantage of the conflict in neighbouring Kosovo and escape to Britain.

In December 1999 he arrived in the UK, using the name Bhekim Aliar and passing himself off as an ethnic Albanian refugee from the Kosovo crisis.

Hysenaj admitted at his trial that he had been an illegal immigrant.

Hysenaj was born in Enver Hoxha's Albania in 1979

He said he had lived in the seaside resort of Hastings, East Sussex, where there was a significant Albanian community, while he awaited the outcome of his application for political asylum. Hysenaj learned English and worked as a book packer.

In September 2000 he fell in love with a local girl, Sue, and the following year they moved to Kent - first to Gravesend and then to Tunbridge Wells.

He began working as a freelance translator and in 2002 moved to Crowborough. It was around this time that Hysenaj met a fellow Albanian, Jetmir Bucpapa, who had also sneaked into the country claiming to be a Kosovan.

The two became good friends and socialised a lot together.

In March 2003 Hysenaj married Sue, but this did not affect his immigration status, and in August the following year his application was finally turned down after all avenues of appeal were exhausted.

Hysenaj travelled back to Albania voluntarily, but immediately applied for permission to return to Britain to be with his wife.

The Home Office granted him a two-year "spouse visa", and in January 2005 he returned to Crowborough and his work as a translator.

'Ten-minute interview'

But translation work dropped off and Hysenaj was forced to look elsewhere for work. After a spell in a restaurant and a department store, he signed up with a local recruitment agency, Beacon.

Hysenaj took advantage of the 1999 Kosovo crisis to come to Britain

In December 2005 - only two months before the robbery - they asked him if he was interested in work at the Securitas depot in Tonbridge.

Hysenaj sent in his CV and was asked in for an interview, which he said had lasted 10 minutes. A few days later he was given a job and began working 2pm-to-10pm shifts.

The police believe the robbery had been planned for several months, but it is not clear if Bucpapa encouraged Hysenaj to seek out a job at Securitas or if it was just a happy coincidence for the robbers.

Hysenaj said he had spent two days on an induction course during which he had been told about everything from the fire drill to the security precautions.

Several colleagues later described him as having an "unseemly interest" in the Securitas depot's security.

I could have done a better job than drawing that - this is such a rubbish plan. It's impossible to tell what is what Ermir Hysenaj

Sir John Nutting QC, prosecuting, told the trial Hysenaj had asked about "the amount of money which could be stored in the individual cages, how thick were the walls, how the loading bay opened, how many CCTV cameras there were and whether there were panic alarms".

He spent most of his time working on the money sorting machine and it was clearly not only tedious work but also ironically - considering how much money he was handling every day - poorly paid.

Asked by his counsel, Michael Boardman, if that included his lunch hour in his hourly pay, he replied sarcastically: "No. They very kindly took my lunch hour away."

Barely a month after starting work at Securitas, Hysenaj was persuaded to smuggle a hidden camera into the building to take footage that could help the robbers once they were inside.

The camera - no bigger than a 50p piece - was disguised in the buckle of a belt he wore that day.

It had been bought a few months earlier by Lee Murray, from a security shop, Eyetech, in Chesterfield, Derbyshire.

The jury was shown footage of Hysenaj walking around the building and loitering near a loading bay for no apparent reason.

The prosecution also said it was significant that Hysenaj, whose shirt was usually hanging out of his trousers, on that day had it tucked in neatly - so the belt-buckle camera had a clear view.

During his break on that day - 16 January 2006 - Hysenaj rang Bucpapa to let him know he had accomplished his mission.

He then removed the belt and stored it in his locker until the end of his shift.

Inside information

Hysenaj is also thought to have provided a hand-drawn plan of the inside of the depot, although he ridiculed this idea when he gave evidence.

He said: "I could have done a better job than drawing that. This is such a rubbish plan. It's impossible to tell what is what."

It is thought Hysenaj also provided the robbers with information about the depot's manager, Colin Dixon, whose abduction was crucial to the robbery succeeding.

Hysenaj denied any involvement in the robbery and said the only reason he would have been calling Bucpapa was to discuss cannabis, which he admitted buying off his fellow Albanian regularly.

Asked why in interviews he had denied knowing Bucpapa, Hysenaj told the court: "I was scared that I would jeopardise my immigration status."