Profile: Jetmir Bucpapa

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

Bucpapa was the robber police nicknamed "Hi Viz", because of the high visibility fluorescent tabard he wore throughout the raid.

Jetmir Bucpapa claimed he dealt drugs but was not a robber

When Bucpapa was cross-examined in court, he was shown CCTV footage of the raid in progress by prosecutor David Jeremy QC, who pointed out the masked "Hi Viz" and said: "Watch his movements, they may be familiar to you."

Mr Jeremy then rather theatrically produced a similar tabard which was found at the home of one of the other robbers and had the name Jetmir written across the front.

"You would have to be mad to commit a robbery wearing a tabard with your own name on it," said Mr Jeremy.

Bucpapa replied: "Yes. That's insane. It wouldn't take long to get recognised with your name on the front."

Then Mr Jeremy directed the jury's attention to the CCTV footage and pointed out that "Hi Viz" was actually wearing his tabard inside-out.

Despite objections by Bucpapa's barrister, the point had been made.

A few minutes later, Bucpapa, speaking in a strong Albanian accent, was probably the only person in the court who was unaware of the impact of the prosecutor's next question.

Mr Jeremy said: "Lynn Dixon said she was not very good with accents, but she said she recollected 'Hi Viz' having what sounded like a South African accent."

Bucpapa replied: "I wouldn't know what they sounded like, I have never met anyone with a South African accent." His clipped vowels made him a dead ringer for an Afrikaner.

Friend of 'inside man'

Bucpapa, 27, was given the role of guarding depot manager Colin Dixon's wife and child before and during the robbery.

He told Mrs Dixon and her child to kneel on the floor of a lorry, and pointed a gun at their heads.

The masked robber, wearing his "high visibility" jacket

Mrs Dixon said she had feared they were going to be killed, adding: "I thought we had served our purpose and that was it."

Bucpapa was a key part of the robbery as he was the sole link to Ermir Hysenaj, a friend and fellow Albanian, who was the "inside man" with key information about the Securitas depot.

He believed this would guarantee him a larger slice of the takings.

Bucpapa was also friends with another of the robbers, Lea Rusha, whom he had met when he worked in a pizza restaurant with Rusha's girlfriend.

He also knew Stuart Royle, who employed him occasionally as a driver.

Bucpapa lived close to the Securitas depot but claimed during the trial that although he had passed it many times, he had no idea it contained large amounts of money.

He also denied dropping Hysenaj off there on 16 January 2006, the day when the inside man secretly filmed inside the depot using a hidden camera.

Mobile phone logs

One of Bucpapa's biggest problems was his lack of an alibi on the night of the robbery.

He told the court he had visited a car auction in south London and had returned to his home in Tonbridge at 2200 GMT to find his wife, Rebecca, asleep.

He said he had had some food and a shower and had then gone to bed, but his wife could not say what time he arrived home and could only say he was there when she woke at 0730 GMT.

Bucpapa's mobile phone was also active during the night, contacting other robbers, and his explanation was that he had left the phone in Royle's car earlier that day.

He was identified by make-up artist Michelle Hogg as being one of the men who came to her flat in south London to be measured up a few days before the robbery.

Bucpapa denied having met her.

After the robbery, he laid low with Lea Rusha in London but both men were arrested on the Sunday after the raid when police shot out the tyres of their car as they drove through Greenwich.

Bucpapa, who came to Britain in the 1990s, drove a Range Rover and claimed he was financially secure because he had two jobs and sold cannabis on the side.

But he was greedy and wanted to become an overnight millionaire.

Ultimately his greed was to prove his downfall.