Guilty: Gun gang in UK's biggest raid

They were part of a gang which stole £53 million from the Securitas depot in Tonbridge in February 2006 after kidnapping manager Colin Dixon, his wife Lynn, and their seven-year-old child at gunpoint.

But multi-millionaire car salesman John Fowler, 59, of Staplehurst, Kent, was cleared of all charges. Prosecutors claimed his home at Elderden Farm was used by the robbers before the raid.

After the robbery, £100,000 of the cash was discovered there. Fowler told detectives he found the money in a Discovery which had been returned to him. In interview, he said when he found it he panicked and buried it.

Throughout the seven-month trial the convicted fraudster refused to give evidence but the jury was told he claimed he was asleep at home when the kidnap and robbery took place.

The gang wore sophisticated prosthetic disguises normally used in the theatre and cinema in the raid. They trussed up 14 employees with cable ties. The hostages were warned: "You will die if you do not do as you are told."

Motivated by "greed - pure and simple", they crammed as much money as they could into a 7.5 ton lorry but had to leave £153 million behind.

Mrs Dixon feared she and her child would be murdered as a gun was aimed at the back of their heads. As the robbers prepared to flee, CCTV showed the Dixons and the rest of the hostages being locked in empty cash cages.

The men found guilty of conspiring to rob, kidnap and possess firearms are: garage owner Roger Coutts, 30, of Welling; car salesman Stuart Royle, 49, of Maidstone; drug dealer Jetmir Bucpapa, 26, of Tonbridge; roofer Lea Rusha, 35, of Southborough, Kent, and Ermir Hysenaj, 28, an interpreter of Crowborough, East Sussex.

They are to be sentenced tomorrow by Mr Justice Penry-Davey.

Signwriter Keith Borer, 53, of Maidstone, was cleared of handling stolen money. Hairdresser and make-up artist Michelle Hogg, 32, of Woolwich, who supplied the disguises, agreed a deal with prosecution lawyers who dropped conspiracy charges in return for her giving evidence against the gang. She is now living in fear of her life under the witness protection programme.

Only £21 million of the haul has been recovered. The hunt for the missing money has led police to Eastern Europe, Northern Cyprus and North Africa, where they have seized homes, millions of pounds in bank accounts and cars.

At present, the cost to the taxpayer of bringing the gang to justice stands at £16 million.

Chief prosecutor Roger Coe-Salazar said the hunt for the gang's assets was "an integral part" of the inquiry. "I wouldn't want anyone thinking we didn't have a very, very beady eye on asset seizure," he said.

Officers believe some of the missing £2 million has been lodged in Northern Cyprus, which is not recognised by Britain or the EU.

Sean Lupton, named in court as a suspect, fled to the island after the robbery. Another suspect, Keyinde Patterson, has fled to the West Indies.

Albanians Bucpapa and Hysenaj are also believed to have sent money home to friends and family in their homeland.

But key suspects have been identified abroad and millions of pounds in bank accounts as well as two cars, a villa and a flat have all been seized in Morocco.

Police and prosecution lawyers have reacted angrily to attempts to glamorisethe robbery as a victimless crime. "It is quite easy for it to end up being seen in a romantic, even an Oceans 12 way," said Mr Coe-Salazar. "There is nothing romantic or victimless about a child being held at gunpoint by a masked man. This was a callous and highly dangerous crime."

Detective Chief Inspector Mick Judge described the months of planning as "clever in parts and actually very naive in others", adding: "There was some very sophisticated preparation and also some very silly mistakes that they had not thought through at all.

"A lot of preparatory work went on which had to be done over a period of time and it was very difficult to cover your tracks."

The rented Renault lorry used to drive away the cash was easily traced because the vehicle collided with a steel boom as it was driven off, leaving vital evidence.

Rusha was arrested with plans of the depot still in his house along with Securitas note wrappers and an outfit and weapon used in the raid.

He was also linked to a lock-up garage where £8.6 million was uncovered and his DNA was on a balaclava in a van containing £1.3 million parked at the Ashford International hotel. A total of £8.9 million was recovered from a car lot linked to Coutts.

Since the robbery the Bank of England has carried out a review of its security procedures involving the storage of used banknotes.