A MAKE-UP artist took to the stand at the trial of those accused of being involved in Britain's biggest ever cash robbery.

Michelle Hogg, 32, began giving evidence on Wednesday in the Old Bailey trial of seven men accused of being involved in the £53million Securitas robbery in Tonbridge in February last year.

Miss Hogg said she had been sent on a make-up job by a man from south east London who was allegedly also involved in the plot.

As the court was shown a picture of the man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, she said: "Do I have to look at him?"

The court was also shown the picture of a second man from south east London allegedly involved in the plot whom Miss Hogg recognised as someone she had met regularly.

Describing the task she was asked to do by the first man, she said: "It involved doing casts. Positive and negative masks and making latex noses and chins and supplying hair for moustaches and beards."

Sir John Nutting QC, prosecuting, asked her: "Are you now willing to reveal the details of what you did? And to who you did it, and to their associates?" She responded "yes" to each question.

She told the trial that she had thrown the materials left over from the job into the rubbish bin outside her flat in Plumstead, south east London, after her mother had phoned her to tell her about the robbery.

Miss Hogg, who now lives in Woolwich, south east London, had originally stood accused alongside the men in the dock, but she was formally cleared of all three charges earlier this month.

Meanwhile, two of the men accused in connection with the raid met at a Kent car park to exchange two sacks sealed with masking tape, the trial heard.

Defendant John Fowler, 58, was said to have told police in interview that he believed the sacks could have contained money from the robbery.

He said: "I didn't want to know what was in the sacks. I had a bloody good idea but I didn't ask."

Fowler said he agreed to meet Stuart Royle, known as Slippery, at the Comet car park in Borstal, near Rochester, because he was frightened. He said Royle had called him and instructed him to bring the two hessian sacks that had been left in a stable at Fowler's farm in Staplehurst.

The court heard that Fowler told police that he did not know how the sacks got into his stables or that his farm had been used by the robbers even though he had been at home on the night of the robbery in February last year.

He admitted having the lorry that was used in the raid washed in Chatham, but said he was acting on Royle's instructions.

Sir John Nutting QC, prosecuting, told the trial at the Old Bailey that no hessian sacks containing money had been found.

Silver-haired Royle, 48, who is representing himself, then stood up in the dock and said: "Have any hessian sacks full of anything been found?"

The judge, Mr Justice Penry-Davey, said: "You cannot ask any question at this stage."

Fowler said he did not go to police before he was arrested because he had received a threatening phone call. He said: "I was told to keep my nose clean and nothing would happen."

He added: "Whoever it was that phoned me was trying to buy time because at the time I got the phone call I was prepared to go to the police."

Seven men are on trial. They are John Fowler, 58, Stuart Royle, 48, Emir Hysenaj, 27, Jetmir Bucpapa, 26, Lea Rusha, 24, Roger Coutts, 30, and Keith Borer, 53.

Car dealer Fowler, of Elderden Farm, Chart Hill Road, Staplehurst; car salesman Royle, of Allen Street, Maidstone; unemployed Bucpapa, of Hadlow Road, Tonbridge; roofer Rusha, of Lambersart Close, Southborough, near Tunbridge Wells; Hysenaj, of New Road, Crowborough, East Sussex; and Coutts, a garage owner, of The Green, Welling, all deny conspiracy to kidnap, conspiracy to commit robbery and conspiracy to possess a firearm at the time of committing an offence. Hairdresser Michelle Hogg, 32, of Brinklow Crescent, Woolwich, southeast London, was cleared of all three charges earlier in the hearing.

Borer, of Little Venice Country Park, Hampstead Lane, Yalding Maidstone, denies handling stolen goods.