At least six men stage Britain's biggest robbery, stealing £53m (about $92.5 million or €78 million) from a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent.
The Securitas depot robbery was a large heist in Tonbridge, Kent, England. It began with a kidnapping on the evening of 21 February 2006 and ended in the early hours of 22 February, when the criminals left the depot with almost £53 million. It was the UK's largest cash robbery and the gang left behind another £154 million only because they did not have the means to transport it.
After planning the heist for some time, doing surveillance and putting an inside man to work at the depot, the gang abducted the manager and his family. That night, they tricked their way inside the depot and tied up fourteen workers, threatening them with weapons. The gang stole £52,996,760 in used and unused Bank of England sterling banknotes. Most of the getaway vehicles were found in the following week, one containing £1.3 million in stolen notes. In raids by Kent Police, £9 million was recovered in Welling and £8 million in Southborough; by 2007, 36 people had been arrested in relation to the crime.
At trial at the Old Bailey in London, five people were convicted and received long sentences, including the inside man, Emir Hysenaj. During the trial, a woman who had made prosthetic disguises for the gang decided to turn Queen's evidence in return for the charges against her being dropped. Lee Murray, the alleged mastermind of the heist, fled to Morocco with his friend and accomplice Paul Allen. He successfully fought extradition to the UK and was eventually imprisoned for the robbery there instead. Allen was extradited and jailed in the UK; upon his release he was shot and injured in 2019. As of 2016, £32 million had not been recovered and several suspects were still on the run.