FACTBOX-Britain's biggest robberies

LONDON (Reuters) - Five men were facing substantial jail sentences on Tuesday after they were convicted of kidnapping and robbery in Britain's biggest ever heist, a 53 million pound raid on a cash depot in Kent. The previous biggest cash robbery was a 26.5 million pound heist in Northern Ireland in 2004.

Here is a factbox on some of Britain's previous biggest robberies in the last 40 years.

1963 - In the "Great Train Robbery", a gang held up the Glasgow-London mail train and stole 2.6 million pounds.

1983 - Around 6,800 gold bars and 100,000 pounds of diamonds were stolen from the Brink's-Mat high security vault at Heathrow Airport. The haul was worth 26 million pounds.

1995 - In July, a gang carried out the biggest cash robbery since 1963 when they ambushed a Securicor van as it arrived at the Midland Bank district service centre in Salford, Greater Manchester, escaping with 6.6 million pounds.

2002 - At least two robbers escaped with 4.57 million pounds' worth of foreign currency after raiding a British Airways security van at Heathrow. The cash had arrived on a BA flight from Bahrain.

2002 - Thieves hijacked a security van, again at Heathrow, and escaped with up to 1.5 million pounds' worth of cash that had arrived on a South African Airways flight. Police later arrested 12 people and recovered the loot.

2004 - A gang stole 26.5 million pounds from the headquarters of the Northern Bank in Belfast in a raid police and politicians blamed on Irish Republican guerrillas.

2006 - In the latest Kent heist, an armed gang posing as police stole at least 53 million pounds from the Securitas Depot in Tonbridge after kidnapping the manager of the depot and his family. Despite the elaborate planning, the gang was rounded up by police within days after detectives received a tip-off. The men left with 52,996,760 pounds, leaving behind another 153 million.

(Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)