A GANG of violent robbers have been convicted of stealing £1.75m in foreign currency from a Heathrow warehouse.

Glenn Cameron, of Northolt and three other men were to be sentenced at the Old Bailey on Wednesday.

It comes at the end of the first ever judge-only trial as the previous attempt collapsed after allegations of jury-tampering. Two trials before that were also halted, the first when a defendant fell ill and the second when the jury failed to reach a verdict.

Cameron, 50, John Twomey, 62, of South Ruislip, Peter Blake, 57, of Notting Hill and Barry Hibberd, 43, of Shepherd's Bush, were part of a six-strong armed gang who raided Menzies World Cargo on February 6 2004.

They had been taken airside in a van by a man on the inside, employee Darren Brockwell.

Wearing rubber masks and woolly hats they tied up 16 employees with plastic handcuffs, pistol-whipping two of them and kicking another in the chest.

While being tied up one attempted to flee but was chased by Blake who fired at him at close range.

He missed and a fight broke out between them, at one point the victim managed to grab the gun but it failed as he tried to fire back at his attacker.

Other robbers then joined Blake and they overpowered the employee. Blake was later identified from DNA from a piece of latex and the woolly hat which the victim had managed to pull off in the fight.

The Raiders broke into the vault and took the cash before stealing a white van and a gold Ford Focus at gunpoint.

But what they did not realise was flying Squad officers had been tracking them for months, watching who they met and even recording their plotting on tape.

Brockwell, the inside man, was arrested the next day and gave evidence implicating the four men. He was sentenced to six years after pleading guilty.

Twomey handed himself in less than a fortnight later following a media appeal.

Blake was arrested in July 2005 after his DNA was traced when he was arrested for an unrelated matter. Hibberd was identified through CCTV and spotted and arrested by officers in May 2006. While Cameron was picked up in March 2007 at a caravan site in Cornwall where he had been laying low.

All were convicted of robbery and firearms charges, Blake was also convicted of attempted GBH for firing at an employee.

Detective Superintendent Stuart Cundy, head of the Met Police's Flying Squad, said: "These are dangerous individuals who organised a complex armed robbery, to steal a substantial amount of money and expected to get away with it. They were prepared to not only carry guns, but to use them to ensure their plan succeeded.

"I pay tribute to the victims of this violent robbery who provided evidence in this case. I have no doubt that these men would have continued to pose a risk to the public if they had not been caught."

Police were unable to say where in Northolt Cameron lived.