AN EIGHTH person charged in connection with the £53m Securitas depot raid has appeared in court.

Garage owner Roger Lloyd Coutts, 29, of The Green, Welling, is accused of conspiring together with others to rob Securitas, and also of conspiring to kidnap a person.

Coutts, wearing a blue zip-up hooded top, spoke only to give his name and address when he appeared before magistrates in Maidstone.

The two charges were then read out to him as he stood handcuffed in the dock, flanked by two police officers.

The magistrates adjourned the case and remanded Coutts in custody. He will next appear alongside the seven others charged in connection with the Tonbridge robbery in a pre-trial hearing at the Old Bailey on July 10.