Security van driver who handcuffed himself to his steering wheel as ‘inside man’ in fake heist that saw nearly £920,000 snatched from his vehicle is found guilty and warned he faces years behind bars

• Andrew Measor claimed he only managed to raise the alarm by dialing his nose
• He claimed he only managed to raise the alarm by dialing with his nose

A security van driver, who handcuffed himself to his steering wheel, helped stage a bogus raid and then claimed he was suffering from PTSD has been convicted of stealing £920,000.

Andrew Measor, 51, claimed robbers had handcuffed him to the wheel of his van and he had only managed to raise the alarm by dialing the number with his nose.

He was found guilty after he was caught bragging about faking his stress-related illness after the fake heist and boasted to friends he was ‘milking it’, Southwark crown court heard.

Measor, from Essex, was convicted by a jury of conspiracy to steal and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice on Tuesday.

He waited two hours before raising the alarm over the faked robbery in Ilford, east London, with his accomplice Stefanos Cantaris.

Andrew Measor, from Essex, was convicted by a jury of conspiracy to steal and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice on Tuesday

He claimed robbers had handcuffed him to the wheel of his van and he had only managed to raise the alarm by dialing the number with his nose

Cantaris, from Epping, Essex, who had already pleaded guilty to the theft charge, was found guilty of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, while they were both cleared of conspiracy to launder money.

Cantaris was remanded in custody while Measor was granted conditional bail ahead of sentencing on March 24 but Judge Dafna Spiro warned him he faces a lengthy prison sentence.

While signed off from work after the heist, Measor told a friend that it was ‘defo an inside job’, prosecutor Catherine Farrelly told the jury.

She said: ‘That is probably one of the few things upon which Andrew Measor and the prosecution will agree during this trial – that this was an ‘inside job’.

‘And so you will want to consider who it was on the inside who was able to provide Stefanos Cantaris and his co-conspirators with the information needed to execute this theft.

‘It won’t surprise you to hear me say the prosecution says that the evidence points squarely in the direction of Andrew Measor.’

Ms Farrelly said the theft of the £920,000 was carried out ‘with the assistance and full participation’ of Measor.

‘They sought to hide this by faking a robbery,

‘They have then, to the most part, successfully hidden the money that was stolen.’

Five others were cleared of involvement in the plot following a six-week trial at Southwark Crown Court.

Earlier prosecutor Charlotte Hole said the conspiracy involved three main things:

‘First of all stealing a large amount of money from a cash-in-transit vehicle.

‘Having stolen that money, the second aim was to conceal it both to hide their links to the money and to prevent it from being recovered.

‘Thirdly, achieving the theft of the money in the first place by the participation of an inside man from the company running the cash in transit vehicle, in this case Loomis.

‘The prosecution says that each of these defendants, to varying degrees, were involved in the theft of a large amount of money, £920,000, from Loomis, with the assistance and full participation of the Loomis driver from whom the money was taken, Andrew Measor.

‘They sought to hide this by faking a robbery. They have then, to the most part, successfully hidden the money that was stolen.’

She told the jury: ‘You can already be sure of one thing; you can be sure that there was a conspiracy to steal because Mr Cantaris accepts that there was by having pleaded guilty and he accepts that he was involved.’

Measor left the depot in Dagenham on December, 30, 2021 with £920,000 in bank notes and £14,660 in coins in his van, the court heard.

Cantaris, from Epping, Essex, who had already pleaded guilty to the theft charge, was found guilty of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, while they were both cleared of conspiracy to launder money

When the van arrived in Friary Lane, Ilford, Measor placed shopping bags full of cash in the van’s airlock.

A white Vauxhall Combo van pulled up and two men got out to collect the bags.

Measor then drove his van to Oak Lane and handcuffed himself to the steering wheel.

Two hours later, Measor called the landline number of the Loomis depot at Dagenham.

He said he had been robbed at 5.00am that morning when a man approached him with a gun and had said: ‘I know everything that goes on, just do as I say and everything will be ok.’

Measor said he was handcuffed to the steering wheel of his van and had tried to get passers-by to help him, but no one had paid him any attention.

‘He explained that he’d had to use his nose to dial the number,’ said the prosecutor.

‘He explained that the thieves had given him bags to put the money into and he had then passed the bags out to them.’

Measor appeared calm after the incident but he claimed that he had PTSD and told Loomis he needed time off, the court heard.

‘It appears that he claims he was traumatised from the events that occurred,’ Ms Hole said.

‘If this had been a genuine robbery, of course that would be expected.’

Ms Hole read out messages from his mobile phone to the jury.

‘He told one friend that he’d been signed off sick from work due to post-traumatic stress, and then added that he was ‘milking time off.’

In another conversation with someone who appears to have been a colleague at Loomis, he discussed the police investigation and speculated that the police may think that he was involved.

He then commented, ‘Was starting to sort out comp claim, apparently I get more if it goes to court, more stress etc, June 13th I’m still milking.’

‘In another conversation, he again talked about ‘milking the f*ckers’ and told the person with whom he was communicating to keep an eye out for any available work for him.

He also told them it was ‘defo an inside job.’

Cantaris met with Measor several times before the raid, and CCTV and phone evidence linked the others to them, the court heard.

Measor, of Loughton, Essex, denied but was convicted of conspiracy to steal and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

He was acquitted of conspiracy to conceal or transfer criminal property.

Terrance Burrell, 57, from Theydon Bois, Essex; Mark Kendall, 56, from Loughton; Paul McSweeney, 55, from Watford, Hertfordshire; Saimir Neziri, 38, from Barnet, north London; and Christopher Shipp, 35, from Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, were acquitted of all three charges. 

They hugged each other as the jury foreman delivered the verdicts.

Measor was released on conditional bail ahead of sentence on March, 24, subject to a curfew, electronic monitoring and not applying for international travel documents.

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