Four Guilty Of Heathrow Heist

Four men have been found guilty of their part in a £1.75m pound robbery at a Heathrow warehouse in February 2004.

John Twomey, 62, of Westmead, South Ruislip; Peter Blake, 57, of Notting Hill; Barry Hibberd, 43, of Gold Hall Road, Shepherds Bush; and Glen Cameron, 50, of Northolt were found guilty of robbery and firearms charges at the Old Bailey after the first Judge-only trial.

Blake was also found guilty of attempted GBH after shooting at an employee who had tried to run away during the robbery.

Darren Brockwell, 43, previously pleaded guilty at Guildford Crown Court on 22 March 2004, to conspiracy to rob and was sentenced to six years in prison.

They will be sentenced at the Old Bailey later.

Twomey, Blake, Hibberd and Cameron were part of the six strong gang that had gained access to Menzies World Cargo after being taken airside in a van by an employee, Darren Brockwell, who was acting as an 'inside agent'.

Having gained entry to airside after 11pm on 6 February 2004, six men, some armed with handguns, entered Menzies shed and stole £1.75m.

Although all those taking part in the robbery had been wearing rubber masks and woolly hats to disguise themselves, Twomey was later identified.

Sixteen employees were tied up with plastic handcuffs. Two employees were pistol-whipped, and one was kicked in the chest.

Whilst they were being tied up, one of the victims attempted to run from the premises, Blake chased after him and shot at him from close range. Luckily the shot missed and a fight between Blake and the man started, during which the gun was discharged twice more.

At one stage the victim was able to get hold of the gun and attempted to shoot at Blake, but the gun failed and others joined Blake to overpower him.

Blake was later identified using forensic tests on a piece of pink latex foam from the mask and the black woollen hat he was wearing. His victim had managed to pull these off during their fight and the victim's DNA was also found on the piece of latex.

Having gained access to the vault they then stole several bags containing cash and left the warehouse, stealing a white van and a gold Ford Focus at gunpoint.

This was worth a total of £1,772,852.53 sterling.

The gang did not realise Flying Squad officers had been watching them over the previous months.

Whilst the officers were aware that a robbery was being planned, they were unclear exactly when it would be, and who would form part of the gang.

The morning after the raid officers started searching for, and arresting, some of those who had planned and co-ordinated the attack on Menzies.

Brockwell was arrested on 7 February 2004. He later pleaded guilty at Guildford Crown Court on 22 March 2004, he was sentenced on 23 March 2007 to six years imprisonment. He subsequently gave evidence against Twomey, Blake, Cameron and Hibberd at this trial.

Officers attended the homes of Twomey and Cameron in Hampshire on 7 February 2004 and during a search of Twomey's house found drawings of the layout of the warehouse, provided to him by Brockwell.

Twomey and Cameron were not at the addresses but subsequent investigations established that they had booked into the Days Inn Hotel, near Heathrow.

Following an appeal in the media to trace Twomey he handed himself in to Staines police station on 18 February 2004.

Blake was arrested on 18 July 2005. Following his arrest on an unrelated matter his DNA was taken and found to match the DNA profile on the national DNA database that had been recovered from the latex mask and hat that one of the victims had managed to pull from one of the robbers.

A CCTV still from the Days Inn Hotel was circulated and Barry Hibberd was identified by an MPS officer. He was arrested in May 2006 after he was seen by officers driving a BMW X5.

Cameron was arrested in March 2007 at a caravan site in Perranporth, Cornwall. He had been in hiding since the robbery.

Parts of the foreign currencies are believed to have been exchanged for sterling at a foreign exchange bureaux in central London.

260,000 Australian dollars recovered by officers was traced back to a Bureaux-de-Change in Notting Hill.

(PR/GK)