53m robbery trial begins
The young child of a cash depot manager was kidnapped at gunpoint by thieves disguised as police, the Old Bailey heard today at the opening of the trial of eight people charged over Britain’s biggest cash robbery.
The child - whose name, age and gender cannot be given for legal reasons - and its parents were held hostage while the gang carried out a 53m raid on the Securitas depot in Kent in February last year.
The court heard details of the “cruel ruse” played on the family of the depot’s manager, Colin Dixon.
The gang used what looked like a police car and theatrical disguises to waylay Mr Dixon after stopping his car as he drove home, said Sir John Nutting, QC, prosecuting.
“Lured to this vehicle, Mr Dixon was then taken at gunpoint to an isolated farm where he was interrogated about the depot, and about its security arrangements, by men armed with guns,” said Sir John.
His wife Lynn and their child were then tricked away from their home in Herne Bay, Kent.
Sir John said men in police disguises told Mrs Dixon that her husband had been taken to hospital after a car accident. They offered to take her and her child to see him. “Mrs Dixon’s kidnappers used a cruel ruse, first to invade her home and then to trick her into driving away in their car,” said Sir John. “Distracted by anxiety, Mrs Dixon woke her [child] and left the house hurriedly in order to drive to her husband’s hospital bedside with those whom she believed to be sympathetic and kindly policemen,” he said.
“She realised how wickedly she had been deceived when the ‘policeman’ passenger produced a gun.
“She too was driven to the same farm where her husband was being held prisoner.”
John Fowler, 58; Stuart Royle, 48; Jetmir Bucpapa, 26; Lea Rusha, 35; Michelle Louise Hogg, 32; Roger Coutts, 30; and Emir Hysenaj, 27; deny conspiracy to rob.
They also pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to kidnap Mr Dixon, his wife and child, and conspiracy to possess firearms.
Keith Borer, 53, denies handling stolen money.
The case continues.
