Police carry out raids in cash heist hunt

DETECTIVES investigating the multimillion pound Securitas robbery were last night involved in armed raids across England where the gang carried out their audacious heist.

As the net closed in on the gangsters, Kent Police said “a number” of search warrants had been executed, although the force refused to reveal if any further arrests had been made.

With police activity intensifying, armed officers apparently shot out the wheels of a car and arrested two men on a seafront road near Whitstable on the north Kent coast.

Meanwhile in Southborough, near Tunbridge Wells, forensic teams were searching a property following an armed raid there on Saturday night.

Detectives believe that with the investigation into Britain’s biggest robbery moving at such a fast pace, the robbers are making mistakes.

Kent’s Assistant Chief Constable Adrian Leppard yesterday said he remained “very confident” the gang responsible for the raid on the Tonbridge depot would be caught. He also revealed the cash found in a white Transit van in an Ashford car park on Friday amounted to £1.3 million (€1.9m), “sizeably more” than originally thought.

Forensic tests were being carried out on the guns, balaclavas and flak jackets also found in the back of the van, he added.

Mr Leppard revealed the 14 cages used by the gang to transport the huge cash haul had been dumped in fields near Maidstone at 9.30am on Wednesday, just hours after the raid.

And he also issued another appeal for information about the white Renault lorry used by the robbers.

The lorry displayed a 54 number plate.

“I am very conscious that people may have been out walking, doing other activities - if you have seen a white box van, a white Renault lorry out there please give the hotline a ring, as it may be the vehicle we are looking for,” he said.

Two men aged 55 and 33 arrested on Saturday in the Maidstone area have now been released on police bail, along with a 49-year-old man held the same day.

Their release brings the total number of confirmed arrests in connection with the inquiry to six.

Mr Leppard said police had completed forensic examination at the cash depot in Tonbridge and had handed it back to Securitas.

The company has now started its final count of the missing cash which should be completed by tomorrow.

Colin Dixon, 51, the depot manager kidnapped by the gang along with his wife Lynn and nine-year-old son Craig, spoke for the first time on Saturday about his family’s “horrific” ordeal.

Mr Dixon said the “terror” he, his wife and son had experienced had amounted to the “worst night of my life” and he appealed for the public’s help in catching the “terrible” gang.