BSIA attacks coverage of Kent cash robbery

The Editors of both The Times and The Sun have been lobbied by the British Security Industry Association's (BSIA) chief executive David Dickinson and Paul Kenny - acting general secretary of the GMB Trade Union - for what the security industry feels was "ill-informed" and "irresponsible" reporting following the multi-million pound cash depot raid in Kent at the end of February.

In a joint letter, Dickinson and Kenny criticised "a storm of media comment, some of which can only be described as, at best, ill-informed and, at its worst, irresponsible". The UK's biggest ever cash robbery occurred at the Securitas depot in Tonbridge, with the depot manager, his wife and son all being kidnapped in what was an horrendous ordeal.

The letter continued: "This is not an incidence of audacious criminals pulling off a major coup, and neither is it a ‘crime straight out of an Ealing comedy', but a further example of the growing number of violent attacks against an industry which is vital to the efficient running of the UK economy, and the operations of banks, building societies and retailers nationwide."

Dickinson and Kenny's words came home to roost early last month when a gang stole up to £600,000 after ramming a Securitas Cash-in-Transit van with a Massey-Ferguson tractor in Warrington, Cheshire. Luckily, the security personnel embroiled in the heist managed to escape their vehicle and were physically unhurt.

The BSIA and the GMB are running an ongoing campaign to reflect the serious nature of cash delivery crime. An Early Day Motion (967) on the issue has been tabled in Parliament, calling on the Government to recognise Cash-in-Transit attacks as a human rather than a business crime, and to tackle this problem urgently as part of its wider organised crime agenda.