Two cagefighters, including one from Kent, planned Britain’s biggest ever cash robbery and then fled to Morocco together to live off the proceeds, a court heard.

Jurors at the Old Bailey were told martial arts enthusiasts Paul Allen, 30, from Chatham, and 29-year-old Lee Murray plotted the armed heist at the Securitas cash depository in Tonbridge, which netted the robbers £53million.

Depot manager Colin Dixon and his wife Lynn and young child, from Herne Bay, were kidnapped and taken hostage while 14 staff were held at gunpoint during the terrifying raid.

And within days of the robbery the fighters had fled to Africa via Amsterdam to begin a new life, the Old Bailey heard.

Murray had been the gang’s "leading light", while his friend Allen had "played an important part throughout", jurors were told on Tuesday.

Sir John Nutting, QC, prosecuting, told how seven robbers raided the depot on the night of February 21/22, 2006.

The QC told the jury Allen had to be extradited back to the UK to face trial, but Murray remains in a Moroccan jail.

Allen and co-defendant Michael Demetris, 32, from Bromley, deny conspiracy to rob, conspiracy to kidnap and conspiracy to possess firearms.

Five other men Stuart Royle, 48, Jetmir Bucpapa, 26, Lea Rusha, 35, Emir Hysenaj, 28, Roger Coutts, 30, were convicted for their parts in the robbery after a trial earlier this year.

Demetris was charged because of the evidence in the first trial of make-up artist Michelle Hogg, 33, who admitted applying prosthetic masks and theatrical make-up to disguise the robbers.

In the months leading up to the raid, it is alleged Allen worked closely with Murray, buying mobile phones and SIM cards, covert surveillance cameras and equipment used for reconnaissance on the depot and the Dixons’ family home and allowing his Chatham home to be used by Demetris to put the finishing touches to the gang’s disguises.

The court was told some £20million has been recovered by police since the robbery - but millions more remains unaccounted for.

Allen, of Huntersfield Close, Chatham, and Demetris, of Bromley Common, Bromley, deny conspiracy to rob, conspiracy to kidnap and conspiracy to possess firearms.

The trial continues.