Men staged £1m fake cash van armed robbery heist in two-year plot

Cash van driver Andrew Measor pretended to be a victim of armed heist which he helped plot
Andrew Measor handcuffed himself to wheel in robbery plot but was convicted
Met Police
Josh Salisbury22 February 2023
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Two men have been found guilty in a £1m cash-in-transit robbery plot in east London.

Andrew Measor, 51, and Stefano Cantaris, 39, had roles in a robbery plot on December 30, 2021 in which Measor, a cash van driver, pretended to have been the victim of an armed heist.

The court heard how the plot was carefully planned over two years involving burner phones and ‘mission cars’ in a bid to avoid detection. The cash has not yet been recovered.

It heard how Measor left home in Loughton in December 2021 and was met on the doorstep by a balaclava-clad man with a gun.

He claimed the armed man had threatened to harm his sleeping family unless he followed the gang’s orders.

He said he was given a disposable phone and several large laundry bags and ordered to drive to his depot and collect £920,000 in banknotes and nearly £15,000 in coins.

CCTV captured him putting the money into the bags shortly after starting his shift and then driving to a dirt track road off Friary Lane in Woodford.

Andrew Measor
Met Police

Throughout he pretended he was under duress on CCTV but was just acting to seem like a genuine victim.

After he pulled over in Woodford, three men jumped out of a Vauxhall Combo van and black VW Golf on cloned plates and took the cash and phone.

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

He called his employer and claimed he had been robbed - saying he had to use his nose to call for help.

But police soon became suspicious because it was obvious those who staged the heist had inside knowledge.

Measor claimed he was traumatised from the robbery and was signed off sick, but texts revealed his boasts of “milking time off,” and feigning PTSD for compensation.

Convicted: Stefanos Cantaris
Met Police

Detectives discovered Measor and Stefanos Cantaris were connected and had been in contact with one another to plot the heist.

They met multiple times beforehand at locations they later returned to on the day of the robbery, using burner phones which were destroyed.

Fake number plates were used on at least four different cars, some of which had multiple sets of cloned plates which were interchangeable swapped.

All of the cars were crushed hours after the robbery.

Detective Chief Inspector Laura Hillier, from the Met’s Flying Squad, said: “This case is an example of how far proactive policing can go, it was a substantial investigation but has paid off following the outcome in court.

“The two men played their part in executing the plan but they were not as successful as they’d hoped in covering their tracks. The level of planning shows how determined they were to succeed.

“Our enquiries to trace the stolen cash continues.”

Measor, of Danbury Road, Loughton, was found guilty of conspiracy to steal and perverting the course of justice at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday.

Stefano Cantaris, of Albany Court, Epping, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal and was found guilty of perverting the course of justice

They were both found not guilty of transferring criminal property. They will be sentenced at the same court on Friday, March 24.

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