'Spy' TV Camera Aided Securitas Robbery

TV-based technology allowed both the detailed planning of a multi-million pound robbery and ultimately led to the capture and conviction of the culprits.

Among the five men convicted of kidnap, robbery and firearms charges this week following the £53m raid at a Securitas depot in Kent in 2006, was Emir Hysenaj, who as a Securitas employee filmed inside the depot using a hi-tech video camera - only the size of a 50p coin – and fitted to his belt.

However, it was the more prosaic CCTV cameras that 'captured' and in the end helped identify the armed robbers who held the depot manager, Colin Dixon, his family and 14 members of staff hostage as they loaded cash into the back of a 7.5-tonne lorry.

The Dixon family was initially kidnapped by two men dressed as police officers who forced them to go to the cash depot under threat.

The family was told: "You will die if you do not do as you are told," the trial court heard.

Today, five robbers were convicted and are due to be sentenced on Tuesday.

A sixth man John Fowler, 59, of Chart Hill Road, Staplehurst, Kent, has been cleared of all charges following the seven-month trial.

Jurors are still considering a verdict on a seventh man Keith Borer, 54, of Hempstead Lane, Maidstone, Kent, who denies handling stolen goods.

Those found guilty are: Stuart Royle, 49, of Allen Street, Maidstone, Kent; Jetmir Bucpapa, 26, of Hadlow Road, Tonbridge; garage owner Roger Coutts, 30, of The Green, Welling, south-east London; Lea Rusha, 35, of Lambersart Close, Southborough, Kent; Emir Hysenaj, aged 28, of New Road, Crowborough, East Sussex.

They had all denied conspiracy to kidnap, conspiracy to rob and conspiracy to possess firearms.

Since the robbery in February 2006, police have only recovered £21m of the stolen cash, the court was told.

The man with the camera, Ermir Hysenaj, was the inside man in the Securitas robbery.

An illegal immigrant who had been deported back to Albania, he was only allowed back into the country by the Home Office on a two-year visa because he had married an Englishwoman.

Hysenaj told the court he handed in his CV, had a 10-minute interview and was offered a job at the depot.

He was soon working in the cash deposit processing area, sorting money and handling millions of pounds every day.

Police said the robbers equipped him with a hidden camera fitted in a belt, which he used to film the inside of the depot.

But after the Securitas robbery, Hysenaj was not the first person to be arrested, and it was some time before Kent Police made the link between him and one of the robbers, Jetmir Bucpapa.

It was only then that he was arrested.

(BMcC)