An anti-theft solution has been hailed after cash in transit (CIT) thieves who beat, punched, and kicked a security guard in a cashbox robbery in Gravesend, Kent, were sentenced to a total of seven years and three months in prison.
The product from Applied DNA Sciences (APDN), based on forensic SigNature DNA markers, protects about 26pc of the cash in transit in the UK, and has contributed to the jailing of 74 criminals, many of them arrested for armed and dangerous acts, resulting in sentences totaling more than 350 years in prison. The product has had a 100pc conviction rate since its introduction in 2009. The arrest and convictions by Kent police were part of Operation Venom, aimed at reducing violent attacks in the county.
In November 2012 thieves attacked and beat a security guard carrying a cashbox into a store, stole a Mini Cooper for their get-away, and thought they had made off with £17,000. But the stolen cash boxes deployed, dousing the cash and the thieves with a Applied DNA Sciences SigNature DNA marker; the unique content of the sequence encoded in the DNA, linked the stolen cash to that reported crime.
According to court documents, later the gang tried to pass off the marked cash at numerous betting shops across Kent and London, where staff identified the cash and passed it to police. Law enforcers sent the cash notes to the company’s labs for forensic analysis.
Kent Police Detective Constable Paul Walker who led the police investigation, said: “Our operations make use of a wide variety of the most efficient policing techniques, and technologies. Products based on SigNature DNA have been among our most effective tools.” The men first appeared before Maidstone Crown Court between November 2013 and January 2014 where they admitted their crimes.
A version of the DNA marker called DNANet is used in anti-intrusion products that protect homes and businesses, anti-theft and security smoke products like DNA Fog/Smoke Cloak. The home assets protection version of the platform is being used in a trial by police in 2000 homes in the south London boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark.
Tony Benson, Managing Director, EMEA for APDN added: “These new convictions only underline the power of our company’s anti-theft product line, including DNANet®…all share the unrivaled, forensic accuracy of SigNature DNA.”
