THERE was only one way and that was to swim across Southampton Water pursued by armed police.

Anthony Knightley had been part of a gang who had carried out a raid on a security van in Banstead, Surrey making off with £750,000 in cash on August 16, 1978.

The drama began when the gang hijacked two cars, forcing the drivers to hand over the keys.

The heist centred on a fake road accident with a bogus police officer, to seal off a suburban road before ramming a Security Express van and holding its three occupants at gunpoint.

The gang cut through the vehicle’s armour plating with a chainsaw to reach the cash before running to nearby getaway vehicles.

The robbers then blocked a main road, staging a fake accident with one of them lying ‘injured’ on the ground.

As the van entered the road, a bogus policeman wearing a luminous jacket bearing the words ‘Police slow’ stepped into its path.

Another vehicle overtook the van, then breaking so hard the driver had no chance of avoid a collision before it was rammed from behind by the second car.

The gang blasted its tyres to immobilise the van before using the chain to make an 18in square hole in its armour plating for the gang to grab the cash.

In their haste to get away, they left £100,000 behind.

An intensive police operation led armed officers to a caravan at Hamble. But Knightley fled in a car to the shore of Southampton Water where he tried to swim to freedom.

He had almost crossed the busy shipping lanes when he stole a boat.

Prosecutor Sir John Blofeld -brother of BBC commentator Henry Blofeld - later told Maidstone Crown Court how officers feared the bandit was carrying a gun.

Police fired several shots but no one was injured. He reached the other side of Southampton Water but hours later was arrested at Hythe and jailed for 16 years. His two accomplices got 18 years and 16 years.

After the hearing, Commander Jim Sewell, head of the Robbery Squad, described the gang as “active, ruthless and desperate robbers.”