Heathrow gang jailed over £2.6m cash heist

Five people who stole £2.6m in a raid at Heathrow airport were jailed yesterday. The robbers, who included an airport security guard, were caught with the help of a lip-reader, who said one of them was bragging about the heist.

When officers from Scotland Yard arrested the gang, they found £2.4m of the stolen currencyhidden in bags in an attic, a garage and under beds at homes in west London.

On 19 March, Sundeep Sidhu, 22, an airport security guard, drove to terminal one to meet a South African Airlines flight from Johannesburg. He claimed he was forced at knifepoint by two men to put two silver cash boxes in to a van.

But police were suspicious and put Sidhu and his brother Harjit, 25, under surveillance. Evidence from a lip-reader showed Harjit boasting about how he was "going to Hawaii" and that police "haven't sussed anything", Kingston Crown Court was told. The brothers who planned the heist confessed to the plan after the Flying Squad made a series of early morning raids on addresses in west London, where they found most of the cash.

Sundeep Sidhu, of Norwood Green, west London, pleaded guilty to theft and was sentenced to five-and-a-half yearsfor the "grave breach of trust" he inflicted on his company, ADI Securicor. Harjit Sidhu, of the same address, pleaded guilty to theft and was jailed for five years. Anil Parmar, 37, of Northolt, Manish Bhadresa, 23, of Southall, and Harbhajan Padda, 33, of Isleworth, south-west London, were also jailed for five years each.

Detective Inspector David Thompson of the Flying Squad said: "This was an organised group of people who exploited Sundeep Sidhu's position of trust to steal a very large sum of cash."