On This Day – November 26th

On 26th November 1983 the BBC reported that armed gang had carried out Britain's largest ever robbery at London's Heathrow Airport.

Over £25m worth of gold bullion bound for the Far East was stolen from the Brinks Mat warehouse, about one mile (1.6km) outside the airport perimeter.
Police said a group of at least six men overcame the guards and successfully disabled a huge array of electronic security devices.

Insurers offered a reward of £2m for information leading to the recovery of the 6,800 gold bars – which were all identifiable by refiners' stamps.

The members of the gang – who were all armed and wearing balaclavas – also stole £100,000 worth of cut and uncut diamonds. They dressed in security uniforms to get into the warehouse and then terrorised the guards into giving them the alarm codes.

All the guards were handcuffed, one was hit on the head with a pistol and two had petrol poured over them. Once inside the safes, the robbers used the warehouse's own forklift trucks to transport the 76 boxes of gold into a waiting van.

The alarm was raised by one of the guards at 0830 GMT after the gang had left.

Scotland Yard Flying Squad Chief Commander Frank Cater led the hunt for the thieves. He said he believed they had inside information and were a "highly professional team".

Police estimated 15 people were involved in the planning of the Brinks Mat robbery, but only three of the gang members were convicted. Micky McAvoy and Brian Robinson were both jailed for 25 years in December 1984, and Kenneth Noye served 14 years for handling some of the stolen gold.

Noye was released in 1990, but 10 years later was convicted of murdering Stephen Cameron in a road-rage fight on the M25 and is now serving a life sentence.

The majority of the gold has never been recovered. By 1996 about half of the gold, which had been smelted, was thought to have found its way back into the legitimate gold market.

It has been suggested that anyone wearing gold jewellery bought in the UK after 1983 is probably wearing "Brink's-Mat" gold...

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