Two men have been found guilty of a £1million cash in transit robbery plot.
The pair were found guilty following meticulous investigative work by the Met’s Flying Squad.
The sophisticated criminal plan was unravelled during a seven month long investigation, after police suspicions were raised soon after the robbery in December 2021 was reported by the alleged victim.
Detectives established that it was an inside job carried out by using privileged information available only to employees. They also discovered it had taken more than two years of preparation, and had involved burner phones and ‘mission cars’ in order to remove any link between the culprits and the robbery.
On 30 December 2021, Andrew Measor, a specialist cash in transit driver, left his home address for work.
As he was leaving, CCTV showed him being accosted on his doorstep by a man armed with a firearm and wearing a full facemask. Measor later claimed to police that this man had threatened to harm his family sleeping inside the address unless he complied with the gang’s instructions. He said he was provided with a disposable phone and told to drive to his depot and collect his money for the day. He did so and later that morning left the depot with £920,000 in bank notes and £14,660 in coins in his van.
Shortly after beginning his shift, Measor was seen on CCTV as he pulled over and put the bags of money into large laundry bags (given to him by the man on his doorstep). He then drove the van to a dirt track road off Friary Lane in Woodford, arriving there at 06:30hrs. As part of his job, Measor would have been equipped with a body-worn camera and a personal attack alarm. The van he was driving was fitted with multiple security features and he could be seen on CCTV to be communicating using the disposable phone to maintain the pretence he was under duress.
Soon after arriving in Woodford, a white Vauxhall Combo van and black VW Golf, both on cloned plates, pulled up and approached the van. Footage played in court showed three masked men remove the chequered laundry bags containing the bank notes and the disposable phone given to Measor.
Measor then drove the van to the nearby Oak Lane and handcuffed himself to the steering wheel of the van. He called his employer and stated he had been robbed, explaining that he’d had to use his nose to dial the number.
Police arrived shortly after and launched an investigation. Soon into their enquiries they became suspicious about the nature of the robbery. It was obvious from his account that those involved knew about the specific security procedures and must, therefore, have obtained information from someone inside the company.
Measor was signed off sick from work, claiming he was traumatised from the robbery. However when he was later arrested, texts from phone that was analysed by police showed he told a friend he was “milking time off” and was feigning PTSD for compensation.
Extensive enquiries into CCTV, ANPR data (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) and phone work revealed the series of events before and after the staged robbery.
Detectives were able to show that during the robbery, Measor had in fact been play-acting for the CCTV to maintain the impression he was a genuine victim.
The investigation established Measor and a man called Stefanos Cantaris were connected and had been in contact with one another.
It was proven that they met each other numerous times before the day of the theft, at locations they later returned to on the day of the robbery. They used burner style phones to use that day to avoid linking them to each other. All burner phones were destroyed in the hours following the robbery and never recovered by police.
Several false number plates were used on at least four different cars, which they swapped into, with the cash in order to distance themselves from the scene of the crime. Some of these vehicles had multiple sets of cloned plates that were interchangeably swapped. Enquiries revealed all vehicles used in the offence were crushed in the hours following the theft.
Detective Chief Inspector Laura Hillier, from the Flying Squad, said: “This case is an example of how far proactive policing can go, it was a substantial investigation but has paid off following the outcome in court.
“The two men played their part in executing the plan but they were not as successful as they’d hoped in covering their tracks. The level of planning shows how determined they were to succeed.
“Our enquiries to trace the stolen cash continues.”
The men were charged in July 2022 and stood trial for conspiracy to steal, conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, and conspiracy to conceal, disguise, convert, transfer or remove criminal property.
Andrew Measor, 51 (12.09.71) of Danbury Road, Loughton, was found guilty of conspiracy to steal and perverting the course of justice at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday, 21 February.
Stefano Cantaris, 39 (22.02.83) of Albany Court, Epping, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal and was found guilty of perverting the course of justice
They were both found not guilty of transferring criminal property.
They will be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on Friday, 24 March.

Leave a Reply