Securitas Depot Robbery - Robbery

Robbery

The manager of the depot, Colin Dixon, was abducted at about 18:30 on 21 February 2006, while driving his silver Nissan Almera. He was pulled over on the A249 just outside Stockbury, a village north east of Maidstone, by what he thought was an unmarked police vehicle, due to the blue lights behind the front grill. A man approached him in high-visibility clothing and a police-style hat. The manager proceeded to get into the police impostor's car, thinking that he was a police officer, where he was then handcuffed by others in the vehicle. He was then driven west on the M20 motorway to the West Malling bypass, where he was bound further, transferred into a white van and transported to a farm in Staplehurst, Kent.

As this was taking place, the manager's wife and eight-year-old son were being held hostage at their home in Herne Bay, after they answered the door to men dressed in police uniforms, who falsely informed them that the manager had been involved in a road traffic accident. They were then driven to the farm at which the manager was being held, where he was told, at gunpoint, that failure to co-operate could put him and his family in danger.

The depot manager, his wife and son were taken to the Securitas depot in Tonbridge at around 01:00, travelling in a plain white van, being held at gunpoint. At the depot, 14 members of staff were bound by robbers armed with handguns, shotguns, a Skorpion and AK-47s and wearing balaclavas.

The robbery came to an end at approximately 02:45. The staff, along with Mr Dixon's wife and son, were left locked in cash cages. However, one member of staff had a key to unlock the cage she was locked in; she was then able to free the others. It was still another half an hour before staff members, who had been tied up, managed to raise the alarm. Police officers arriving on the scene discovered staff, the manager and his family all bound, but physically unharmed.

The Bank of England, to whom the money belonged, was reimbursed £25 million by Securitas AB the same day, and assured the public that Securitas would make up any additional loss.