Paying the price for high-stakes sting
HEATHROW HEIST GANG FACE 23 YEARS JAIL – BUT MOST OF £7M IS MISSING
MEMBERS of the gang behind the £7million “Heathrow Heist” have been sentenced to more than 23 years in prison.
A fake robbery was staged by two security guards, 32-year-old Mohammad Siddique and 40-year-old Ranjeev Singh, to steal from their own cash-in-transit van at Heathrow Airport.
The former Loomis security guards drove a security van full of 26 bags of cash from the British Airways cargo depot on March 14.
CCTV footage shows the van pulling over outside the security gates so Singh could go to the toilet shortly after the money was picked up at 8.30am.
Siddique then drove off on his own and with the help of another man unloaded the bags into a white transit van parked in West View, Feltham, where the security van was later found abandoned.
Hours later, Siddique was found in a ditch by a member of the public with his hands tied behind his back and feet tied together, pretending he had been robbed.
Meanwhile Singh raised the alarm after waiting inside the toilet for 20 minutes, claiming he could not make any contact with his mobile in the van.
Both men were arrested following Siddique’s inconsistent account of events and Singh’s delay in alerting the control centre.
A total of 19 bags of cash con- taining £7million were missing from the van.
Mobile phone records showed another man, 41-year-old Rafaqat Hussain, had been in contact with Saddique during the heist.
Following the robbery Hussain tried to use the money to buy a house from an 88-year-old woman after having it vandalised in an attempt to lower the price.
Flying Squad detectives established Hussain had called a recovery driver at 9.24am on the morning of the robbery, and that the white Ford transit van had been taken to a nearby recycling centre for scrap.
Siddique and Singh had spent months putting the plan into place with Hussain, even ensuring their shift patterns were the same.
At the sentencing at Kingston Crown Court on Wednesday October 18, Judge Stephen John said: “This was an audacious conspiracy to steal cash in transit.
“The sum involved was one of the largest of recent years, £7 million was stolen and none has been recovered.
“This was a sophisticated operation which involved meticulous planning and execution. You each played for high stakes and must now pay the price.”
Siddique of Belgrave Road, Slough and Singh, of Grampian Way, Langley, Slough, were sentenced to six-and-ahalf years each for conspiracy to steal.
Ringleader Hussain, of Chadwick Road in Slough, was handed a sentence of ten years and and three months, for conspiracy to steal and money laundering, he was also given two years and eight months for conspiracy to burgle.
Detective Chief Inspector Mark Bedford, of the Met’s Flying Squad, said: “The sentences handed to these defendants today reflect the high value of the monies stolen, the meticulous planning involved and the complete breach of trust by Siddique and Singh, without whom the offence would not have been possible.
“These sentences should act as a deterrent to anyone considering committing this type of offence.”
Gary Carrod, of Nursery Road, Taplow, was given three and a half years for conspiracy to burgle for his role in the organisation of a house to be ransacked and burgled in an attempt to bring down the price.
The money has never been recovered but £900,000 appeared in a Pakistani bank account of Hussain’s wife Razvana Zeib and she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to burgle and conspiracy to commit money laundering at Kingston Crown Court on September 11.