A father and son have been found guilty of conspiring to steal a cash box containing £45,000 outside a Co-op.

Terrance Clark, 50, and his son Lewis Clark, 27, of Thessaly Road, Battersea, were found guilty of conspiracy to rob and possession of an imitation firearm with criminal intent at Guildford Crown Court today.

A masked gunman pistol-whipped a brave cash delivery driver and snatched his cash box in Tattenham Crescent, Tattenham Corner, at about 10.30am on January 30 last year.

The court heard how the robber pointed a pistol at James Smith’s chest and pulled the trigger.

It did not fire and the gunman used the weapon to beat him under the visor. He told the court: "I could sort of start to feel my mouth fill up with blood. It was repeated. Bang. Strike after strike."

He fell down and the cash box came out of his grasp as he was kicked, punched and stamped on.

The pair claimed in court that rather than doing the robbery that day they had been dealing cannabis to a relative in Box Hill and their car had broken down that morning.

But the getaway car, a stolen Chevrolet found near the scene, was photographed in convoy with Terrance Clark’s car on the A240 two weeks before the attack. Telephone analysis by the police revealed that both father and son had been in Tadworth on Wednesday mornings and Tuesdays in the run up to the robbery.

A laptop seized from the son’s partner’s home showed someone had been searching online for "successful bank robbery", "grabbing secure boxes" and similar terms.

The prosecution said the pair appeared to come into money in the weeks after the robbery with Lewis Clark spending large amounts of cash at a designer outlet, Bicester Village.

Lewis Clark had claimed in court that he carried out the robbery-related searches on the laptop because he wanted to warn his friend off taking a job at a security firm.

The sentence will be handed down on June 13.