Two more men charged with plotting to murder £54m Securitas robber Paul Allen

Tuesday, 4 August 2026 10:09

By Henry Vaughan, home affairs reporter

Two more men have been charged with plotting the shooting of a member of the gang that carried out Britain's biggest ever cash robbery.

Sean Skinner, 47, and Neil Williamson, 35, have been remanded in custody after being charged with conspiracy to murder former cage fighter Paul Allen, 48.

He was left paralysed from the chest down after he was shot twice as he stood in his kitchen in Woodford, east London, on 11 July 2019.

Allen was a member of the Securitas heist gang that stole £54m from a cash depot in Tonbridge, Kent, in 2006.

Earlier this year, on the 20th anniversary of the raid, Kent police said the robbery remains a live investigation, with more than £30m still unaccounted for.

Allen fled to Morocco with his friend and heist mastermind Lee Murray, another former cage fighter, before being extradited back to the UK and sentenced to 18 years in prison.

He was living in a large detached rented house with his partner and three young children when he was shot after being released.

Three men - Daniel Kelly, 47, and brothers, Stewart Ahearne, 47, and Louis Ahearne, 38 - were last year found guilty of conspiracy to murder Allen after an Old Bailey trial.

Kelly was sentenced to 36 years in prison and an extra five years on licence, Louis Ahearne was jailed for 33 years, and Stewart Ahearne was jailed for 30 years.

Judge Sarah Whitehouse KC said she believed the three men convicted "were motivated by a promise of financial gain", but she had "no doubt" others were involved.

The Metropolitan Police told Sky News Skinner, from Woolwich, south-east London and Williamson, from High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, were arrested over the shooting of Allen in south-east London on 15 July.

The pair appeared at Croydon Magistrates' Court the following day charged with conspiracy to murder between 26 June and 12 July 2019.

They have been remanded in custody and will next appear at the Old Bailey later this month.

Sky News

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