by Keith Hunt

A company director caught with almost £1 million in his car, some of which came from the £53 million Securitas robbery in Tonbridge, has had a confiscation order for over £1.1 million made against him.

Ian Bowrem was found to have benefited by £3,334,675 from crime. The £1,111,294 he has been ordered to pay are his available assets.

Judge Philip Statman ordered at Maidstone Crown Court on Monday that there would be a five-year jail sentence in default of payment within 28 days.

Of the amount confiscated, £996,230 will be paid in compensation to Loomis, previously Securitas.

Bowrem, of Ottery St Mary, Devon, was sentenced to three years nine months at the same court in November last year after admitting money laundering.

The cash, wrapped in Clingfilm, was seized from the boot of Bowrem's Mercedes on the M25 after he met another man in a pub car park on the A316 just outside Chertsey, Surrey, in June 2006.

Sentencing Bowrem, 47, Judge Statman said: "It is not every day of the week that car boots have a content of this kind found in them.2

Some of the money, he said, was found to be linked "to the infamous security depot robbery" in February 2006.

The judge heard that Bowrem did not know some of the money came from the terrifying Securitas heist.

Detective Inspector Mark Fairhurst, of the joint Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate, said: "Linking this case to the Tonbridge robbery was complex. Our investigators travelled to Spain, Switzerland and Dubai.

"We do not stop at the conviction of offenders. We want to ensure that criminals do not profit from the proceeds of their crimes.

"We will, wherever possible, always seek to recover money or assets through the Proceeds of Crime Act. Today's order is another step for Loomis in reducing their losses from the robbery."