Robbery gang left £153m behind

The seven masked men put piles of cash into the 7.5-ton vehicle during the early morning raid at the Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent, a jury was told.

Cages and black holdalls full of cash, together with bundles of £20 notes, were loaded into the lorry during the hour-long hold-up, the Old Bailey heard.

The thieves then drove off in the vehicle, taking £53 million, but leaving £153,833,020.73, the court heard.

Seven men and one woman who are on trial deny charges relating to the heist, which was Britain's biggest cash robbery.

Sir John Nutting QC, prosecuting, told jurors: "The only reason why no more than £53 million was stolen was because the robbers could not fit any more cages into the lorry."

CCTV footage taken from the depot showed the robbers were armed with a Skorpion machine pistol, a pump-action shotgun, a handgun and a firearm "similar to an AK47 assault rifle".

The gang breached bunker-like security after kidnapping Securitas manager Colin Dixon, along with his wife and young child, using prosthetic masks to disguise themselves as policemen, the court heard. One of the men gained access when, dressed as an officer and alongside Mr Dixon, he was allowed in by another employee in the control room who thought police really had been called, the jury was told.

The man recalled a poster which urged workers "Don't be a hero" and opened the door to the lorry and two cars which carried the rest of the robbers. Staff were handcuffed with cables or forced to lie down or crouch in various positions while the robbery took place.

One employee was so confident that the depot was "impregnable" that he thought it was an exercise to test their reactions, but others realised, when they saw the fear etched on Mr Dixon's face, that the heist was real, Sir John said. The trial continues.