A POLICE officer who has supported the family kidnapped by the £53million Securitas robbers has rejected a suggestion that depot boss Colin Dixon was a crook posing as a victim of crime.

PC Lorraine Brown, a family liaison officer, told the Old Bailey she had got to know the Dixon family in the 17 months since the Tonbridge heist, adding that they were a “very private family”.

PC Brown’s comments came after she was called to the witness stand by Charles Conway who is representing one of the defendants Jetmir Bucpapa.

Mr Conway questioned PC Brown on an incident in March last year when she and a colleague interviewed Mr Dixon about pictures found in his desk at work of the interior of the Securitas depot.

At the time, PC Brown noted that Mr Dixon told them he could not remember the photos.

This caused PC Brown to raise concerns with a senior officer as she said his whole demeanour changed from chatty and friendly to “closed up”, when he was quizzed.

Mr Conway showed PC Brown an e-mail she had written to a senior officer in which she had said: “It was clear to us that Colin Dixon knew exactly what we were referring to but didn’t want to give any explanation.”

The e-mail also raised concerns about the lack of emotion Colin Dixon had shown following the robbery.

It said: “He didn’t appear to be concerned or angry that his family were put through this ordeal.”

However, when asked by the prosecution if she had concerns that Mr Dixon was involved in the robbery, she said a very definite “no”.

She also agreed that it fitted with Mr Dixon’s personality, that he was a man who showed little emotion.

The court heard how the Dixons had only returned to their former home in Herne Bay once following the robbery, to collect clothes.

PC Brown told the court that even she doesn’t know their new address and that when they meet it is always at a police house.

PC Brown was giving evidence against seven men and one woman who are all charged in connection with the £53 million robbery at the Securitas depot, Vale Road, Tonbridge, in February 2006.

The court was told police trawled through 152,000 hours of CCTV footage as part of the investigation into the heist.

The jury heard how the depot had a sophisticated CCTV system which included five separate recording units each with four hard drives, controlling around 16 cameras each.

David Jeremy QC, prosecuting, called Det Con Stewart Catt to the witness stand to talk through a compilation of the CCTV images showing the events of February 21 last year.

Det Con Catt, who spent four months reviewing the CCTV tapes, explained how each of the robbers was given nicknames by the police to help identify them on the tape.

Based on clothing description and their appearance or actions, the seven became known to police as Policeman, Shorty, Stopwatch, High vis, Driver, Hoody and Mr Average.

Using these names, Det Con Catt talked the court through the cctv to show which robber did what.

The court also saw stills of four weapons used in the heist. These were an AK47 type rifle; a pistol; a Skorpion machine gun and a single barrel shotgun.

Jurors heard that “Stopwatch", held the AK47 type gun, and “shorty" mainly held the Skorpion machine gun.

However, Det Con Catt added that the gang “at various times had access to each and every weapon".

The court also saw “Mr Average “handling the cable ties, used to restrain the hostages at the depot who were bundled into money cages as the gang made their getaway.

The case continues.