Locks and Security News: your weekly locks and security industry newsletter
17th April 2024 Issue no. 701

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Smartwater links cash raid gang to multiple crimes

A gang of cash-in-transit van robbers have been jailed for more than 30 years between them after SmartWater evidence was found on their clothes and stolen bank notes.

Three of the thieves were stopped by police in a stolen BMW after their last raid in which £25,000 was taken from a G4S van, outside a branch of Barclays, in Baker Street, London. The officers found those in the car to have dye staining on their clothes and hands which contained a unique SmartWater signature.

A fourth gang member was picked up by police when he used dye-stained bank notes at a bookmakers which were forensically linked to a robbery that had taken place days before. The fifth member of the gang was arrested shortly afterwards.

When samples of their clothing were sent to SmartWater's forensic labs its investigators were able to identify dye signatures from not only the latest raid, but three different stolen cash boxes, providing irrefutable evidence of their involvement in earlier crimes.

The gang was subsequently linked to five cash-in-transit robberies, between December 2010 and January this year.

SmartWater chief executive, Phil Cleary, said of the convictions: "This sends one of the strongest possible messages to the criminal community that their chances of success in cash-related crimes are increasingly narrow. There is no escaping the forensic evidence SmartWater provides. In this case both the robbers' own clothing and the bank notes tied them to multiple crimes which had a massive impact upon their sentencing."

SmartWater is widely deployed across the cash handling industry, as well as being used to safeguard increasingly valuable metals throughout critical transport, telecoms and supply grid infrastructure in the UK and many other parts of the world.

7th December 2011