Five men were convicted on Monday of stealing £53m from a depot in Kent in Britain’s biggest ever cash heist.
The heavily-armed gang carried out the raid in February 2006 after kidnapping the depot’s manager and family at gunpoint.
Disguised as policemen and kitted out in an array of fake noses, chins and beards, the group made away with what was described as a “king’s ransom” of money in a 7.5-ton lorry.
They were forced to leave more than £150m behind at the Securitas depot – which stored cash for the Bank of England – simply because they did not have any more space in their truck.
Stuart Royle, 49; Jetmir Bucpapa, 26; Lea Rusha 35; Ermir Hysenaj, 28; and Roger Coutts, 30, were convicted at the Old Bailey of conspiracy to kidnap, conspiracy to rob and conspiracy to possess firearms. All five had denied the charges against them.
Two other men – John Fowler, 59, and Keith Borer, 54 – were cleared of charges related to the robbery.
During their seven-month trial, the jury heard how the Securitas heist was elaborately, almost cinematically, staged. Mr Hysenaj, who formerly worked at the depot, secretly filmed the building’s layout and security details using a tiny camera hidden in his belt buckle.
