Local police and the Foreign Office have confirmed Craig Moran was stabbed, shot and tortured before being dumped in a ditch at the Costa del Sol roadside.
It has been revealed he was released from jail around one year ago after serving 12 years in connection to the the armed raid in Nottingham.
A family member has confirmed the injured Brit is the same Moran sentenced in connection to the crime that saw Marian Bates, 64, shot dead in 2003, as she shielded her daughter from armed raiders in her Arnold shop.
Police are understood to be hunting a gang of three to four other Brits who are believed responsible for torturing Moran, which included cutting the tendons in his right hand, slashing him from ear to ear, and shooting him in both legs.
The horror attack is believed to be linked to a drug deal.
The Costa del Sol Hospital Marbella in Spain where a British man is recovering after being brutally attackedA Foreign Office spokesperson confirmed the name of the victim, but were not able to confirm he was the same man convinced for the heist.
They said: “Our staff provided advice and support to the family of a British man following his hospitalisation in Spain, and are in contact with the Spanish authorities."
The kidnappers reportedly dumped Moran in a Costa del Sol roadside ditch, it emerged today, where he was found on Saturday night by passing motorists.
He was also beaten repeatedly around the head before being dumped at an undisclosed destination near Marbella.
Spanish media reports suggest Moran may have been discharged from hospital already.
The Marian Bates murder
Marian Bates was shot dead on September 30, 2003, when two gunmen robbed the Time Centre shop in Arnold.
In 2005, Peter Williams, 19, was jailed for the murder.
Another suspect, James Brodie, 20, has never been caught, and has not made any contact with friends or family since.
Bates was shot after the intruders aimed a pistol at her daughter, Xanthe.
In 2013 police searched a farm in East Heckington, Lincolnshire, in connection to Brodie's disappearance.
Bates said he was told by police a fortnight after the murder they suspected Brod, who is suspected of pulling the trigger, was dead.
Craig Moran, of Bestwood, Nottingham, was convicted in connection to the crime in 2005.
He was accused of keeping watch on the shop 24 hours before the murder and was found in the getaway car used.
A fourth man, Dean Betton, was also sentenced in connection to the crime.
He had only been in the resort for two hours before being tricked into meeting his attackers.
He reached the area by train and taxi.
No arrests have yet been made.
The Unit against Drugs and Organised Crime (Udyco) has taken over the case, given it has every appearance of being a settling of accounts.
Investigators are working on the theory he was tortured as part of a warning by members of a crime gang.
Moran, who was rushed to the Costa del Sol Hospital in the early hours of Sunday morning for an emergency operation, has reportedly offered investigators few clues about the men responsible.
On Monday convicted armed robber Sean Hercules, 39, from Leeds, was shot dead by police at an apart-hotel near the Costa del Sol resort of Estepona.
Officers said they reacted after he opened fire on them when they went to arrest him for fleeing a car accident with a gun in his hand.
The torture probe and Hercules’ death are not being linked.
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