by Annette Wilson

A man who admitted being part of a plot to rob a security van making cash deliveries in Thanet and Canterbury only got involved because he was scared of one of his co-conspirators.

Police arrested Darren Harvey several months after they collared the other two men involved - one of whom was found hiding up a tree!

Harvey, 34, claimed he was unaware of the armed raid plan but admitted conspiracy to rob when he appeared at Canterbury Crown Court.

Christopher May, prosecuting, said Harvey's co-accused Jason Colliver and Anthony Boyle, both from London, were driving a stolen Chrysler Crossfire and a stolen BMW, trailing a Securicor van on November 25, 2008. Harvey was following in another stolen BMW.

The van made cash deliveries to the Somerfield garage at Minster, then the Halifax and Nationwide at Ramsgate, another delivery in Broadstairs and then on to Canterbury.

A high speed chase began after uniformed police tried to stop the Chrysler in Bridge Street, Canterbury. It crashed at a roundabout in the city.

Boyle, 30 and of no fixed abode, continued to head towards London in the BMW chased by police. The car was abandoned near Gravesend and Boyle was found hiding up a tree.

Police only went to Harvey's house in Whistler Road, north London in July this year because the BMW was registered to a name at that address.

Claiming he was unaware of what was being planned, he said he was in debt to Colliver and only got involved because of Colliver’s reputation for tying people up.

His role was to supply the cars and follow the other two in the hope that, as an uninsured driver, he would be stopped by police and the other two would get away.

David McIntosh, for Harvey, said: "Colliver could be threatening and he found it difficult to stand up to him."

Sentencing Harvey to six-and-a-half years, Judge Adele Williams accepted he was unaware of Colliver’s plan to rob the security van until they began following it - but he did not stop playing his part until the police chases when he left the scene.

Colliver, 30, of Holly Park Road, north London, was given a public protection sentence with a minimum of eight-and-a-half years at the same court in June for a string of robberies committed while he was on the run from Ford Open Prison.

Boyle's case is still to be concluded.