A CAR salesman accused of Britain’s biggest cash heist has quizzed the hairdresser who allegedly disguised him for the job.

The bizarre exchange happened between 32-year-old Michelle Hogg, and Stewart Royle, 48. Both were originally standing trial in connection with a raid on the Securitas depot in Tonbridge in February 2006.

Hogg, who has admitted creating prosthetic masks for the raiders, has since been cleared of the charges and Royle is defending himself after sacking his legal team.

The hairdresser has told jurors how Royle’s hair had been dyed when she turned up to transform other gang members at a South London hair salon.

She said she trimmed the new style and fitted prosthetic noses and chins to the other robbers at Royle’s mother’s bungalow in Shaftsbury Drive, Maidstone.

The pair addressed each other on first name terms but Hogg would not be swayed from her evidence.

When asked by Royle if she could have mistaken the Maidstone bungalow for one of 325 similar homes nearby she said: “Bless you Stewart, but it was that bungalow.

“I turned up at Shaftsbury Drive and I put a goatee beard on Lea Rusha and stuck down some other bits. I didn’t know about Securitas and you know I didn’t know. But that’s what you done.

“I did a face cast of you Stewart, a nose was made for you. So was a chin but it wasn’t applied to you.

“I am sorry, but that is the bungalow that I went to. You offered me a drink and a cake or a biscuit.’

Royle suggested it could not have been his mother’s house because no DNA evidence or any trace of false hair make-up or latex was found by forensic teams.

He said: “At Shaftsbury Drive there was no DNA other than the people who lived there. When you combed beards out there did it not leave a mess?”

“Yes,” said Hogg, “But I cleaned it all up”.

The car salesman said he accepted Hogg had cut his hair just days before the raid after it had been dyed darker.

Earlier Hogg had burst into tears and rushed from the court after being cross-examined by Graeme Wilson on behalf of Rusha.

It is claimed members of the gang disguised themselves as policemen to abduct Securitas manager Colin Dixon, 52 and his wife and child on February 21 last year.

They then drove the family to the depot and forced the manager to over-ride security measures and open the vault.

Lea Rusha, of Lambersart Close, Southborough; Stuart Royle, of Allen Street, Maidstone; Jetmir Bucpapa, of Hadlow Road, Tonbridge; Roger Coutts, of The Green, Welling; John Fowler, of Chart Hill Road, Staplehurst; and Emir Hysenaj, of New Road, Crowborough, have all pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to kidnap, conspiracy to rob and conspiracy to have in their possession a firearm.

Charges

Hairdresser Michelle Hogg, from Woolwich, southeast London, has been cleared of all three charges after the prosecution offered no evidence.

A seventh man, Keith Borer, from Hampstead Lane, Yalding, nar Maidstone, is accused of dishonestly receiving £6,100 of stolen Securitas money, which he denies.