Clive will never forget day of armed robbery

He and two colleagues parked their security van in George Street, Oxford, on Monday, December 7, 1987 when they were ambushed by two masked raiders.

The Securicor team had left their depot at Cowley and delivered a substantial amount of money to the post office in St Aldate’s before heading to George Street to collect cash from the Co-op.

The raiders, wearing yellow PVC jackets, had set up fake roadworks at the corner of New Inn Hall Street and when the Securicor men arrived, they jumped out of the back of a van brandishing shotguns.

Passersby on their way to work scattered as shots were fired.

Two policemen who answered a 999 call were ordered out of their police car.

As they dived for cover, one of the gunmen fired a shot blasting the police car windscreen, before they both turned, fled to their van and drove off emptyhanded.

Mr Dover was taken to hospital after being hit on the head by the butt of one of the guns.

The gang’s white Escort van, registration number DBW 241Y, was later found abandoned off St Margaret’s Road in North Oxford.

The raid was later featured on BBC TV’s Crimewatch, and Securicor offered a substantial reward, but there is no record of the gang being caught.

The raid happened two hours before Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher met Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev at RAF Brize Norton, and it was thought the raiders might have chosen that day expecting fewer police in Oxford.

There was speculation that the gang might have been responsible for two other raids, both in High Street, Oxford, in the previous 12 months, when £20,000 was stolen from the National Westminster Bank and £9,000 from the National and Provincial Building Society.

Mr Dover, who now lives at Poole, Dorset, recalls: “It was a frightening experience. It is something I will never forget.

“We had already delivered a lot of money and if the raiders had succeeded, they would probably have been disappointed with what they found on board.”