Five found guilty at Old Bailey for UK's biggest heist

The gang behind Britain's largest robbery face the possibility of life sentences after being convicted on Monday at the end of a seven-month trial at the Old Bailey criminal court in London. Police are still trying to trace more than half of the ?53 million stolen in an audacious raid on a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent, almost two years ago, and some key members of the gang are still at large.

The jury returned their verdicts after 36 hours of deliberation over eight days and convicted Lea Rusha, Stuart Royle, Roger Coutts, Emir Hysenaj and Jetmir Bucpapa of conspiracy to kidnap and rob. The diverse team of criminals from south London, Kent and Albania will be sentenced today after pleas of mitigation have been made on their behalf.

Royle, who has not been attending the trial and has remained in his cell in Belmarsh prison after dismissing his defense team, was being asked last night if he wanted to attend today's sentencing.

Two defendants, John Fowler, who was also charged with conspiracy, and Keith Borer, who was charged with handling stolen goods, were both acquitted. Michelle Hogg, the hairdresser who made the disguises used by the robbers, was acquitted last year and gave evidence against her former co-defendants. She is now under a witness protection scheme.

The gang received the verdicts impassively, after the trial judge, Justice Penry-Davey, warned the court that the jury's decision was to be received in silence. Some of the robbers shook hands with Fowler after he was cleared. Bucpapa, the young Albanian who was a key figure in the plot, laughed and smiled. The judge excused the jury from ever serving again.

Outside court, Superintendent Paul Gladstone of Kent police, which spent ?5 million on the investigation, welcomed the verdict.

"I am extremely satisfied with the results," he said. "It was an extremely complex case."

"This crime was, at its heart, a crime of violence," Nigel Pilkington of the Crown Prosecution Service said.

He paid tribute to the Securitas depot manager, Colin Dixon, and his wife, Lynn, who with their child were kidnapped and held at gun-point so that the robbery could go ahead.

"The events of that night will no doubt stay with those people for the rest of their lives," said Pilkington of the Dixons and the 14 Securitas employees who were also in fear of their lives during the robbery. He added that attempts to reclaim almost ?32 million still missing from the raid would continue.

"This is not the end of the matter for these criminals," he said. "We intend to seize their ill-gotten gains, wherever they may be."

Roger Coe-Salazar, who headed the Kent prosecution service team, said of the conspiracy: "It was very clever in parts and very naive in others. There were some very sophisticated preparations and some very silly mistakes, but it's quite wrong for it to end up being romanticized in an Ocean's 12 way. There is nothing romantic about a child being held at gunpoint by a masked man."

Borer, who was also acquitted, said that he had been unable to sleep for the past week during the jury's deliberations.