Gang grabs £¾M in 4min hold-up

Press, 17 August 1978, Page 8

Gang grabs £¾M in 4min hold-up

NZPA London A gang with a splitsecond sense of timing has netted £750,000 ($1,402,500) for just four minutes work. They staged a fake road accident, complete with “policeman,” to seal off a suburban road before ramming a security van and holding its three occupants at gunpoint.

Then the gang sliced through the van’s armour plating with a chain saw to reach the money inside. The gang had fled on foot to nearby getaway cars. In their hurry they left £lOO,OOO ($U7,000) in the van, the only flaw in a nearperfect professional crime. The high-speed robbery happened in quiet Sutton Lane in Banstead, Surrey. This is how it unfolded:

Two cars were hijacked from a car park nearby and used to block the road. The cars’ owners were ordered to hand over their vehicles at gunpoint. The gang pretended that the stolen cars had crashed in the road. “They even had a person lying in the road

pretending to be injured,’’ said a man who lives in Sutton Lane.

As the security van entered the other end of the road a man wearing a luminous jacket and uniform bearing the words “police slow” stepped into the street and stopped traffic from entering the area. The security van crashed into the back of a car which had overtaken and braked hard in front of it. The van was rammed from behind by a smaller van and hemmed in at the side by another car. The three security guards in the van were surrounded by the armed raiders, wean* irig crash helmets and masks. The van’s radio was shot outi of action, and the guards were held at gunpoint in the road. The chainsaw was started up within seconds and cut a 45cm square hole in the side of the van. The gang grabbed 35 bags containing £750,000, but overlooked another four containing £lOO,OOO. The security men were unhurt in the raid, although shaken.