A member of the Securitas heist gang that stole £53m in Britain’s biggest-ever cash robbery should be released from prison, the Parole Board says.
Lea Rusha – disguised with prosthetics and a fake ginger beard – was one of two men who posed as police officers to kidnap Colin Dixon, the manager of the depot in Tonbridge, Kent, and his family.
A masked gang tied up staff at gunpoint before loading £53m in cash into a 7.5-tonne lorry in February 2006.
Last month, on the 20th anniversary of the raid, Kent police said the robbery remains a live investigation, with more than £30m still unaccounted for.
Rusha, now 53, was found guilty of conspiracy to robbery, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, and conspiracy to possess a firearm along with four other men at the Old Bailey in 2008.
Mastermind Lee Murray, a former cage fighter, was jailed in Morrocco, while Paul Allen was jailed after being extradited back to the UK from the country.
Rusha was handed an indefinite sentence with a minimum term of 15 years and was first released released in June 2024 but recalled in December that year after breaching his licence conditions.
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After a private hearing last month the Parole Board said he should be released from prison under stringent licence conditions.
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“After considering the circumstances of his offending and time on licence, the progress made while in custody and the evidence presented at the hearing, the panel was satisfied that imprisonment was no longer necessary for the protection of the public,” a summary of the decision said.
“The panel considered that Mr Rusha had made substantial progress during his sentence. It did not find all his evidence to be convincing, but it determined that he met the test for release as set out under the law.”
Last year, three men were found guilty of plotting to murder Allen after he was released from his 18-year prison sentence.
Allen was left paralysed from the chest down after he was shot twice as he stood in the kitchen of his home in Woodford, east London, on 11 July 2019.
