Great Train Robbery anniversary: UK's most infamous heists

MIDLAND BANK CLEARING CENTRE, SALFORD, GREATER MANCHESTER - JULY 1995

When a group of men ambushed a Securicor van at a Salford clearing centre in summer 1995, it was at the time the biggest heist since the Great Train Robbery.

Seven masked, shotgun-wielding robbers held up van driver Graham Huckerby, forcing him to let them into the Midland Bank Clearing Centre.

Once inside, they got away with £6.6m in cash, none of which has ever been recovered.

Huckerby was accused of being the 'inside man' on the robbery, and was jailed for 14 years in 2002.

However, his conviction was sensationally quashed on appeal in 2004, when Huckerby's lawyers successfully argued that he only cooperated with the robbers because of post-traumatic stress.

The robbers behind the huge heist were never captured.

'THE CRIME OF THE MILLENIUM', NOVEMBER 2000

The raid on the Millennium Dome in 2000 went down in criminal history simply because it was foiled. If the gang had pulled it off, they would have completed the world's biggest robbery.

Six men planned to steal £200million of rare diamonds from the Dome - before fleeing on a speedboat down the Thames.

The gang stormed through the Dome - armed with sledgehammers, smoke grenades and ammonia - but were seized by undercover police on their way to the high-security diamond vault.

The De Beers exhibition they'd targeted housed the 'Millennium Star', a flawless 203.04 carat diamond considered one of the most perfect gems in the world.

The Flying Squad and Metropolitan Police foiled the raid, however, after receiving a tip-off and monitoring the gang for months before the heist happened.

[On This Day: Great Train Robbers stole £2.6million in heist that gripped the nation]

Several members of the gang got within inches of the diamonds before police pounced, and Robert Adams, one of the robbers, was quoted as saying, 'I was 12 inches from pay day'.

The group received between four and 18 years jail each following a trial in 2001.

TONBRIDGE SECURITAS DEPOT RAID, FEBRUARY 2006

On February 21, 2006, a group of men perpetrated Britain's biggest cash robbery when they stole £53million from a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent.

The robbers abducted Securitas depot manager Colin Dixon, his wife and eight-year-old son at gunpoint to gain access to the depot.

Once there, the shotgun-wielding gang tied up fourteen members of staff and stole £53,116,760 in bank notes.

The Bank of England was reimbursed £25million by Securitas AB after the heist. Securitas also also offered £2million for information leading to the thieves capture.

But the net quickly closed in on the gang. Police made their first arrest just two days after the heist, and they had the robbers on trial by June 2007.

Car salesman Stuart Royle, jobless Albanian Jetmir Bucpapa, kick boxer Lea Rusha and garage owner Roger Coutts were all jailed for life with a minimum term of 15 years each.

Inside man Emir Hysenaj, who used a miniature camera to film inside the depot, was jailed for 20 years.

Paul Allen received 18 years for his part in the robbery, while Lee Murray, who masterminded the heist before fleeing to Morocco, was jailed for 10 years in 2010.

'THE TAKEAWAY REMBRANDT', LONDON 1981

The renowned painter's 'Jacob de Gheyn III' has been stolen no fewer than four times, giving it the nickname 'the takeaway Rembrandt' and making it the most stolen painting ever.

It was first taken from the Dulwich Picture Gallery, in south London, in 1981.

Four men made off with the painting in a taxi, but amazingly it was returned to the gallery - and has been given back every time it's been stolen since.

The second time the painting was taken, it was found at a German train station, in a luggage rack. After theft number three, it was recovered in a graveyard, and on the fourth occasion it was found in the basket of an abandoned bicycle.

NORTHERN BANK, DECEMBER 2004

The gang who raided the headquarters of the Northern Bank in Belfast nine years ago seized the equivalent of 26.5m.

At the time it was the biggest cash robbery ever in the UK; a heist so large the bank had to withdraw its notes and replace them with new ones with different colors and logos.

The British and Irish governments claimed the IRA was responsible, but the investigation is still ongoing and the raid remains unsolved to this day.

In 2008, bank worker Christopher Ward, accused of providing inside information to the gang, walked free from court after his trial collapsed.

The only person to be convicted was financial adviser Ted Cunningham, who was found guilty of money laundering in 2009. However, his conviction was overturned last year.