To the outside world, they were just three everyday Bradford lads with shared interests and bright futures.

The trio played for the same local football team and regularly enjoyed training together at a city gym.

Fahim Azam, was the son of a prominent businessman and religious leader, who had an excellent job lined up for him when he completed his law and accountancy degree at Bradford University.

Farooq Mohammed, a born-and-bred Bradfordian, had never been out of work since leaving school and was the perfect role model to his five younger brothers.

The third was also a student at Bradford University working towards an economics degree. Like so many other cash-strapped undergraduates, Amir Hussain sought part-time employment to help make ends meet.

And it was this job - working as the driver of a Securicor van - which brought the trio even closer together in their own world of hushed conversations and coded phone messages.

Whenever they were in the public glare, the trio were careful to maintain their outward facade of respectability, completing coursework on time and arriving punctually for work. Nobody could have guessed at the gang's criminal alter-egos which surfaced only behind closed doors.

Here the talk was of guns, violence and getaway cars as they hatched a plan to rob Hussain's security van of more than a third of a million pounds.

And when the moment finally came for action, it initially seemed their meticulous preparations had paid off.

At 5pm on January 12, 2002, as Hussain and his fellow worker David Dyer neared the end of their usual collection route, his accomplices Azam and Mohammed prepared the ambush in a nearby toilet.

When the van pulled up at the Crown Point Retail Park in Leeds, Hussain suggested his colleague took a "fag break" and motioned towards the building. For a moment Mr Dyer declined but then walked into the well-primed trap.

He was brutally beaten, struck over the head with a weapon, and handcuffed to a toilet while the gang "robbed" the van.

As the trio eventually sat counting through £358,0000 of bank notes, they must have felt like Bradford's very own Great Train Robbers.

The whole operation had run like clockwork and they were in the clear. All each had to do was keep his head down and figure out how to spend his £119,000 cut.

But these were three young students, not hardened criminals and it did not take long for a team of detectives to spot the first cracks in their masterplan.

Initial investigations focused on the van and its security arrangements - and the finger of suspicion immediately pointed to Hussain.

The vehicle was fitted with a radar tracking system but on the day of the robbery, the antenna was mysteriously damaged.

Company policy dictated that each cash collection was placed in a series of separate time-delayed lockers so that only one could be accessed at a time. On this occasion Hussain piled the taking into a single compartment, ensuring it was easily cleaned out.

Again, against everything he was taught by the firm, Hussain had not locked the door when his colleague exited and immediately allowed the robbers into the bullet-proof vehicle. Company records showed he also failed to sound the silent alarm as the raid took place.

Detective Sergeant Steve Snow, who led the hunt, said further investigations uncovered a network of phone and text messages between the trio, organising the "hit".

And when Azam's getaway car was forensically examined, experts found traces of Mr Dyer's blood which had been smeared on to their clothing.

He said: "For a first time job it was a reasonable attempt but at the end of the day they are up against a team of dedicated detectives who are willing to employ every tactic possible to solve a serious robbery.

"To say they had hardly ever been in trouble before, they were particularly confident in their abilities. They were not fazed by the events. They carried on their lives as normal after the robbery."

Asked why the gang had staged the attack, he said: "It was probably greed. I think Hussain had seen that this was a way to make money and he thought he could get away with it."

"He wanted a flashy lifestyle, he spoke about fast cars and he saw this was a way to achieve that lifestyle."

And Det Sgt Snow added: "From the very early stages we suspected Hussain, but there were still many pieces of the jigsaw missing. It took several months of detective work to unfold and see the bigger picture."

As the trio were today beginning a total of almost four decades in jail, one mystery remains unsolved.

Despite catching the three friends responsible, the huge cash haul from the robbery has never been recovered.