A cash-in-transit driver has been found guilty of being the “inside man” in a plot to steal almost £1 million after handcuffing himself to his van’s steering wheel in a faked armed heist.

Andrew Measor, 51, claimed he used his nose to dial his phone to call for help from the Loomis depot in Dagenham after he was “raided” on December 30 2021.

The driver, who had worked for the firm for around three years, said £920,000 in banknotes had been stolen after a man armed with a gun approached him as he left his home and said: “I know everything that goes on. Just do as I say and everything will be OK.”

But Southwark Crown Court heard Measor handcuffed himself to the steering wheel, then waited two hours before raising the alarm over the faked robbery in Ilford with Stefanos Cantaris, 39.

Measor, from Loughton, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit theft and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice on Tuesday.

Cantaris, from Epping, who had already pleaded guilty to the theft charge, was found guilty of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, while they were both cleared of conspiracy to launder money.

Cantaris was remanded in custody while Measor was granted conditional bail ahead of sentencing on March 24 but Judge Dafna Spiro warned him he faces a lengthy prison sentence.

The court heard the pair met on numerous occasions in the months leading up to the theft.

While signed off from work after the heist, Measor told a friend that it was “defo an inside job”, prosecutor Catherine Farrelly told the jury.

She said: “That is probably one of the few things upon which Andrew Measor and the prosecution will agree during this trial – that this was an ‘inside job’.

“And so you will want to consider who it was on the inside who was able to provide Stefanos Cantaris and his co-conspirators with the information needed to execute this theft.

“It won’t surprise you to hear me say the prosecution says that the evidence points squarely in the direction of Andrew Measor.”

Ms Farrelly said the theft of the £920,000 was carried out “with the assistance and full participation” of Measor.

“They sought to hide this by faking a robbery,” she said.

“They have then, to the most part, successfully hidden the money that was stolen.”

Terrance Burrell, 57, from Theydon Bois; Mark Kendall, 56, from Loughton; Paul McSweeney, 55, from Watford; Saimir Neziri, 38, from Barnet; and Christopher Shipp, 35, from Bishop’s Stortford, were acquitted of all three charges.