Robbery trial without jury allowed

The new trial will be the first crown court case in England and Wales - normally tried by a jury - to be heard by a judge alone since new legislation came into force in 2003.

The case relating to the February 2004 armed hold-up of a Heathrow depot is already thought to have cost taxpayers £24 million and has been beset by problems.

Police had been aware a hold-up was due to take place at the depot since the previous summer but have still not recovered the bulk of the money.

The robbers themselves bungled the job, believing they would net £10 million after one of them misread a manifest showing how much would be there.

Prosecutors have so far failed to secure any convictions against those said to have carried out the heist, over the course of three Old Bailey trials.

The first, which took place in 2005, stopped when one of the defendants suffered health problems. In 2007 a second six-month trial ended without a verdict when Judge Jeremy Roberts refused to accept a "very strong majority" decision.

Only 10 jurors remained in the case and the judge said he would reserve any ruling on whether to accept a 9-1 majority over a bank holiday weekend. But one member of the panel said he was under too much stress to come back to court and the case went to a retrial, that began in July last year.

Those proceedings ground to a halt in December over claims of jury tampering - but the four defendants were granted bail. Judge Roberts said: "Solid information came to my attention that an attempt has been made to nobble more than one of the jurors on this jury."

Prosecutors then unsuccessfully applied for a fourth trial to be held without a jury but won the argument on appeal.