£2m reward offered for £50m robbery gang

Police are hunting an armed gang that made off with around £50 million from a Kent security depot on Wednesday morning.

The gang, described as "dangerous" by police, held the depot manager and his family hostage for more than six hours while the raid was being carried out. A reward of £2m has been offered by the security firm and its insurers for information that leads to the capture of those responsible.

Detective Superintendent Paul Gladstone of Kent Police said: “This was a traumatic ordeal for the manager of the security depot and his family and for all of the staff who worked there. They have all coped extremely well in the circumstances, when faced with threats and a gang of armed men."

Police know that on Tuesday evening February 21, the depot manager's car was stopped as he drove home from work by what appeared to be an unmarked police car on the A294 near the Three Squirrels pub. He got back into the car where he was handcuffed.

The Volvo car then drove towards the M20 and joined the motorway at junction 7, heading on the London-bound carriageway and then leaving the M20 using the West Malling/Tonbridge exit slip at junction 4, going onto the West Malling bypass.

At roughly the same time, the manager’s wife and eight-year-old son were abducted from their home in the Herne Bay area.

Some time after leaving the motorway the Volvo car met up with a white van. The manager was tied up and put into the van which then drove off to an as yet unknown location. There, the depot manager was threatened at gunpoint and told to co-operate or his family would be at risk.

At about 1.00am on Wednesday February 22 the manager was taken by car to the security depot. A white lorry also arrived at the depot. At least six men, some of whom were armed, tied up the staff on duty at the premises and then loaded a substantial amount of money into the lorry. They left at about 2.15am and staff raised the alarm about an hour later.

No-one was hurt during the incident but the staff were all very shocked by what happened.

Kent Police have appealed for information about the vehicles used in the robbery.

Detective Superintendent Gladstone said: “It is vitally important that we hear from people who may have seen something suspicious or someone acting oddly either round the depot in Vale Road, or in any of the locations where this gang were operating in the time up to the robbery.

“This was a clearly a robbery that was planned in detail over time – someone must have information that will help us in the hunt for the robbers."

An audit carried out at the bank note storage depot run by Securitas determined that the gang had escaped with some £50 million in cash.

The depot is understood to be one of several such facilities run by Securitas and is used as secure storage for Bank of England notes.

Police are studying CCTV footage in order to try and establish the gang's movements.

Kent Police have set up two special incident room hotline numbers on 01622 652361 or 01622 652366 and have appealed for information on the robbery.

Alternatively call Crimestoppers on freephone 0800 555 111.

(SP/KMcA)