The media called it 'the crime of the century' when in November 1983, a gang of six thieves broke into the Brinks-Mat warehouse sited close to London Heathrow Airport. Having forced their way past the security guard, the gang once inside poured petrol over staff inside, threatening to ignite it if the combination to the vaults was not surrendered. Expecting to find £3.2 million in cash, the gang instead discovered that the vault contained three tonnes of gold bullion. Ultimately the haul was £26million in gold, diamonds and cash (worth around £500 million in today's money). The bullion was owned by Johnson Matthey bankers, who subsequently collapsed and came under police investigation themselves when it was discovered that they had made large loans to fraudsters and insolvent firms.
It later emerged that the security guard was a brother-in-law to one of the robbers, and had been in on the plot. Both were arrested in December 1983. Members of the gang were tracked down and arrested, most notably Kenneth Noye who was convicted of handling the stolen gold in 1986 and imprisoned. He served seven years before he became involved in a 'road rage' murder of another motorist in 1996. Having fled to Spain, he was extradited and tried, receiving a life sentence. One of the thieves, Micky McAvoy was given a 25-year prison sentence for his part in the robbery. An associate (George Francis) was later murdered, but none of the other robbers were ever caught.
Most of the three tonnes of stolen gold was never recovered, and it is believed at least half of it made its way back onto the market by 1996. Many of those involved directly or indirectly have met with early deaths, leading to the so-called 'curse of Brinks-Mat'.
The robbery has become almost as notorious as the Great Train Robbery of the 1960s and has been the basis for several documentaries and a film ('Fools Gold', 1992) starring Sean Bean as one of the thieves.
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