Robbers Get $43 Million in Britain

Armed robbers impersonating police officers tied up employees at a southern England security company and stole the equivalent of $43.5 million, the Bank of England said Wednesday.

The money, about £25 million, was stolen overnight from a cash-sorting center at Tonbridge in Kent county, a bank spokesman said.

The spokesman said it was possible that more than $43.5 million was stolen, but the final figure would not be known until the security company completed its accounting.

The heist at Securitas Cash Management Ltd. began Tuesday when some of the thieves, dressed as police, stopped the firm’s manager as he drove home. The manager got into their car, which he believed to be a police vehicle, and was handcuffed, authorities said.

At the same time, other members of the group went to the manager’s house, saying he had been in an accident. The men persuaded his wife and young son to go with them.

The first team, which was holding the manager, transferred him to a white van with another set of thieves.

The manager allegedly was told to cooperate or his family would be hurt.

Early Wednesday, the thieves took the manager to the Tonbridge depot. There the thieves tied up 15 employees and started loading cash into a large white truck, police said.

The staff managed to escape an hour later and called police. No one was injured.

“This was a traumatic ordeal for the manager of the security depot, his family and all of the staff who worked there,” said Detective Superintendent Paul Gladstone of the Kent police.

In December 2004, thieves stole $46.1 million -- the biggest cash theft in British history -- from Northern Bank’s headquarters in Belfast.