A BACK street car repair yard in Welling has been revealed as the secret hiding place for up to £9m in cash, stolen in Britain's biggest ever robbery.

In a fast-moving investigation, as a 43-year-old man arrested at the yard in connection with the find last Friday was released on bail, Kent police moved their search to a nondescript first-floor flat in Bexleyheath.

There, a 28-year-old man was arrested last Saturday and later released on bail after questioning by Kent police.

The drama began last Thursday, as dozens of police swooped on ENR Cars, a car repair business on a small industrial estate in Leigh Place, Welling.

Expert search crews from Kent and the Met Police, and armed police officers, joined dog handlers and forensic teams as they examined every inch of the premises.

They took away bags from a large brick shed in the yard, to be forensically examined, and which turned out to contain millions of pounds from the £53m raid.

The yard is owned by Nigel Reeve, a man in his 40s who left for Spain two days after the Securitas depot in Tonbridge was hit on February 22.

Mr Reeve, who is believed to be starting a new life in Spain with his family, said on the phone he knew nothing about the money.

He said he leased the yard to a man who worked for him but said he did not think he could be involved.

Mr Reeve claimed the part of the yard where the cash was found had been sub-let to a second man. He said he was prepared to return to England to talk to Kent police if they asked him to.

Last Saturday Kent police raided a first-floor flat in Harding Road, Bexleyheath.

The flat is owned by mechanic Roger Coutts who has lived there with his partner Fiona and their 14-month-old son for the past two years.

Neighbours said police removed a number of bags from the flat and Mr Coutts' partner was taken from the flat with a coat over her head and driven away in a police car.

Mr Coutts, whose family live in Plumstead, was not at the flat when he was arrested, and neighbours said there was no sign of the son.

One neighbour told News Shopper the couple had just come back from a skiing holiday. She said: "The police emptied out a suitcase on the driveway."

The couple had been the object of much speculation by neighbours because, despite not having highly-paid jobs Mr Coutts is believed to work for a car recovery firm in Crayford the couple had an expensive BMW 4x4 and a BMW saloon car parked on the drive.

Police are understood to have taken up the floorboards in the flat and been digging in the garden.

They also searched a lock-up garage rented by another nearby family but used by Mr Coutts.

They removed a quad bike owned by the family. They also searched neighbours' dustbins.

Mr Coutts was released on bail on Sunday night but the couple have not returned to their Bexleyheath home.

A neighbour joked: "We don't have to watch The Bill, it's all going on in Harding Road."