A gang of robbers wearing theatrical disguises kidnapped and held a cash depot manager, his wife and child hostage at gunpoint before stealing £53 million, a jury was told yesterday.

During the “terrifying invasion” of a Securitas depot in Kent, the robbers had also held 14 staff hostage and threatened to shoot them as they loaded a lorry with used banknotes.

Opening the case for the prosecution, Sir John Nutting, QC, told the Old Bailey that the robbers were motivated by “pure greed . . . and the prospect of dishonest gain almost beyond the dreams of avarice”.

Only £21 million has been recovered from the robbery at the depot in Tonbridge, which is used by supermarkets and the Bank of England to process vast sums of cash.

Sir John said that while no one was seriously injured during the late-night robbery, the victims still suffered painful flashbacks, mood swings and were afraid of strangers.

The court was told that the robbery, masterminded by Lea Rusha, 35, began when Colin Dixon, 51, the depot manager, was stopped in his car by two men posing as police officers in February last year. They had threatened Mr Dixon at gunpoint, bundled him into their car and had driven to a farm.

At the same time, in another “cruel ruse”, two other fake officers had called at the Dixon family home in Herne Bay, Kent, and had persuaded the manager’s wife, Lynn, 46, to accompany them to hospital because, they said, her husband had been involved in a car crash. She and her young child had also been driven to the farm at gunpoint.

“There is nothing very courageous about kidnapping women and small children,” Sir John said. “But taking such innocent and vulnerable victims hostage at the point of a gun and protected by disguise for the purposes of robbery significantly saps the will to resist of a person whose cooperation is essential to the hostage-takers and who loves the victims, and is concerned for their well-being, more than anyone else in the world.”

While at the farm Mr Dixon had been interrogated about the depot and its security arrangements by men armed with guns.

Sir John said that another “weapon” the gang used was Michelle Hogg, 32, who was trained in using latex, silicone and false hair to make theatrical prosthetic masks that change the appearance so effectively that “even close up the disguise is not apparent”.

It was believed that the bogus officers involved in the kidnappings were “expertly disguised”. Sir John said: “If applied professionally, the disguise can alter not only a person’s looks, but his age and whole facial appearance.”

He said that the robbers had also recruited an “inside man” at the depot, Emir Hysenaj, 27, an Albanian Post Office worker from East Sussex, who had supplied detailed plans of the site and its security system.

Police had recovered plans for the depot which included the positions of the safe, the counting room, control room and even the lavatories.

On the night of the robbery, the robbers, some still dressed as police officers, while others were dressed all in black with balaclavas, had taken the Dixons to the depot and conducted the raid.

The 14 nightshift staff at the depot had been held captive for more than an hour. The robbers had eventually left at 2.45am with the £53 million.

“And the motive for the crime?” asked Sir John. “Greed, pure and simple; the lure of large sums of cash which, divided up among the perpetrators, would have permitted them to enjoy, for some time at least, if not for life, circumstances of luxury, ease and idleness.”

John Fowler, 58, a car dealer from Staplehurst, Kent; Stuart Royle, 48, a car salesman from Maidstone, Kent; Jetmir Bucpa-pa, 26, an unemployed Albanian from Tonbridge; Mr Rusha, a roofer from Southborough, Kent; Ms Hogg, a hairdresser from Woolwich, southeast London; Roger Coutts, 30, a garage owner from from Welling, southeast London; and Mr Hysenaj deny conspiracy to rob.

They have also pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to kidnap Colin Dixon, his wife and child, and conspiracy to possess firearms.

Keith Borer, 53, a signwriter from Maidstone, denies handling stolen money.

Sir John added that the defendants were not the entire gang. Two men currently in custody in Morocco were also due to stand trial along with three women. One man remains at large.

The trial continues.

Cash trail

£21m

Amount of the £53m allegedly stolen in lorry to be recovered

£8.6m

Found by police at a Southborough garage

£1.37m

Found in Ashford at properties allegedly linked to Mr Rusha

£9.7m

Found in Welling allegedly at property linked to Roger Coutts

Source: all figures according to prosecution

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