All language subtitles for THE GOLD (2023) - S00E01 - THE GOLD꞉ THE INSIDE STORY (1080P IP WEB-DL X265 GHOST)

NEWS REPORT: Unit seven
on the Heathrow Trading Estate

is a top-security warehouse. Shortly
before 7:00 this morning,

six men carrying guns and wearing
balaclava helmets burst in.

The armed raiders threatened to turn
the guards into human torches

by dousing them with petrol.

Another guard was pistol-whipped

and, eventually, all the guards ended
up in hospital.

When we arrive on-scene at the
Brink's-Mat warehouse,

we found the guards were in a terrible
state of distress.

Their clothes had been cut off them,

they'd been doused in petrol,

they'd been tied up, handcuffed.

NEWS REPORT: The gang escaped
with £26 million worth of gold bars.

Weighing, altogether, about three
tonnes.

It was patently obvious right from
the start

that it was a very professional job,

carried out by a well-organised and
professional team.

How on earth someone could have come
by the information

that led them to turn up at that
warehouse, that day,

with all that massive amount of gold.

The pressure on the Yard was
enormous. The instruction

was very clear - we've got to solve
this robbery.

TELEVISION REPORT:
Gold is unique.

It has held a place of its own in the
mind of man.

This is the inside story

of Britain's biggest gold heist...

Gold is a symbol of power and
dignity,

a symbol of love and lifelong
devotion.

...and the robbers racing to
turn the gold into cash...

Gold is a pretty useless material.

The last thing you would want on a
desert island.

...told by the police, who must hunt
them down before it's too late.

Nations have fought for it.

Men have died for it.

Failure would trigger

a global crimewave

and change Britain forever.

80% of all the gold that's ever

been produced is behind bars,

because we think of gold as money

and we will do almost anything to get
it.

OK, go.

I opened the door at 6:30.

In you come. Because the alarms are
running.

One week after the robbery,

detectives ask Brink's-Mat security
guards to reconstruct exactly

what happened at the warehouse,

and they capture it all on film.

It was decided to take the guards
through every step

that they'd outlined in their
statements.

This was the first time it had ever
been done.

You've got to look at the big,
bigger picture,

but you start off small.

What time did you arrive?

What role do you have?

What procedures you have to go
through.

How the alarm system works.

How do you get into the inner vault?

What is the security knowledge that
you hold within yourself?

And I took out those keys again

to put the protection system on.

The security set-up was immense.

It was like Fort Knox.

And yet, the armed robbers

managed to gain access.

How could that possibly have happened,

without someone within the
organisation helping them?

Every one of those guards was a
suspect.

Mr Clarke, could you tell us how you
were bound?

Handcuffs, hood and tape around the
ankles.

Now, I was threatened, more or less,
with everything,

from being changed sex,

to being stabbed or scarred or
whatever.

Lying on the floor down here were all
the boxes of the bullion.

He then said to me about taking
these magnetic clamps off.

Who was the mole?

It soon became clear that one guard

must have seen things because of his
location within the warehouse.

He must have seen the robbers loading
the gold.

This office overlooks the loading
bay area of the premises,

and you can see from here the shutter
doors.

One guard, in particular, started to
kind of identify himself almost

by the absurdities in his statement.

And the focus of attention

turned on this man, and that was a man
called Tony Black.

- Did you take your jacket off in the radio room?
- Yeah.

In Tony Black's statement, he
described how he had been forced

to open the shutters to the warehouse
to allow the robbers in.

From where you were standing, could
you see the shutters open?

No, I was just looking in the
corner, like.

When he started to describe how he'd
done it,

he started to place himself in an
angle between two walls.

Are you standing in exactly the same
position as you were in?

Erm, I think I may have even been
closer, because I was doing it

like that, rather than...

He got closer and closer and closer
to the wall.

And at one point, you know, it was
like his nose

was almost touching the wall.

Must have been about here.

This man is putting himself into
this position

so that he couldn't have seen what he
clearly did see

through an adjacent window.

It didn't look right and, of course,
it wasn't right.

We got this massive red flag - he was
lying.

If we could stop the camera there,
please.

Why did Tony Black lie,

saying that he couldn't see the van

when it was being loaded with the
bullion?

I can only presume that he lied
because he would have known

that if he was to say he could see the
van,

the next question would have been,

can you identify the people shifting
the bullion?

These were questions that he was
trying to avoid having

to answer by denying that he could see
through that window.

But the Flying Squad officers had done
their research,

and we knew that Tony Black's sister

was living with a man called Brian
Robinson.

He was known in the criminal

fraternity as The Colonel.

He was a man

capable of carrying out a robbery such
as the one at Heathrow.

We got into Tony Black, in terms of
who else was involved.

We were harsh with him.

We needed to get to the bottom of it.

Tony Black was the weak link in the
robbers' plan.

And as soon as we started to put some
pressure on him and tell him

what we knew about him and about Brian
Robinson, he broke down.

Tony Black confesses all.

He's given the robbers details of the
alarms,

how to access the inner vault,

and even unlocked the front door for
them.

He's the inside man.

Now, he names names.

We identified Micky McAvoy.

Mad Micky, as he was known.

I was part of Micky McAvoy's arrest
team.

What did become clear quite quickly
was that he wasn't going to tell us

the time of day if he had eight
wristwatches up his arm.

There was no way that he was ever
going to confess to anything.

That was patently obvious right from
the outset.

Ten days after the robbery,
ringleaders Micky McAvoy,

Brian Robinson and inside man Tony
Black are in custody.

But the location of the three tonnes
of gold,

worth nearly £100 million in today's
money, is a mystery.

6,800 bars of gold.

This is the biggest robbery in the
world.

The real concern was, what would the
robbers do with this money?

How could it be used?

There was a real fear that this was a
£26 million injection

into the criminal economy.

MUSIC: Sweet Dreams by Eurythmics

The rush was to find the evidence,

the gold bars, because once they were
melted down

and changed into cash, that cash would
disappear.

The gold bars are marked with the
name Johnson Matthey,

the bank the bullion belongs to.

The police must recover the haul
before that identity is erased.

♪ Sweet dreams are made of this

♪ Who am I to disagree?

♪ I travel the world and the seven
seas

♪ Everybody's looking for something...
♪

One of the things the police did

was to alert jewellery houses,

engineering works.

They were very interested indeed in
anybody asking

either to purchase a smelter

or asking to make use of their
facilities,

and they got a break.

TELEPHONE RINGS

Phone desk.

We had a phone call in the office.

A firm in Hatton Garden called us and
said that a man

had been in to purchase this smelter

and wanted it more or less straight
away.

So, we had to scramble four Flying
Squad cars.

The man arrives in a gold Rolls-Royce.

The smelter was put into the back of
it.

He was followed into the countryside,

when he suddenly turned up this remote
driveway,

in the middle of nowhere.

The Flying Squad convoy of four cars
sped past.

When we went back...

...they'd gone.

Our hearts sank. We were devastated.

POLICE RADIO:
We've lost sight of him completely.

They lost him.

The smelter had disappeared.

It was the only clue that the
detectives seemed to have

as to where the gold actually was.

THEME MUSIC

Two men who

took part in Britain's biggest bullion
robbery

have each been sentenced to 25 years
in jail.

Michael McAvoy and Brian Robinson were
convicted of

the £26 million robbery at the
Brink's-Mat warehouse at Heathrow.

As the robbers head to prison,

they take the secret of the gold's
whereabouts with them.

There was an ongoing investigation.

They had to have set up some kind of
mechanism

to transform this gold into cash.

- Check.
- Clear.

- Check.
- Clear.

It was decided to form a separate
task force,

headed by me. I had just been promoted
to

Detective Chief Superintendent.

GUNFIRE

Our task was far greater than just
arresting the robbers.

We hadn't recovered

even the dust of the gold.

We had to work extremely hard,

follow the trail and recover

as much of that gold as possible.

- Police! - Police, mate.
- What's up?

We were looking down every avenue to
try to see who possibly

could have been involved in moving and
laundering this gold.

One man came onto the radar,

and that was Kenneth Noye.

A detective with Scotland Yard's
surveillance branch

receives a tip that Noye -

a businessman, based in the south-east
of England -

is engaged in the illegal movement of
gold.

I had never heard of Kenny Noye,
personally.

He was very much a Kent-based

handler of stolen goods, smuggler.

Not someone who had come to light in
relation to armed robbery

and those sort of crimes.

So he was, for me, a new face on the
block.

FIERCE BARKING

I had done a Land Registry search

on Noye's house and grounds...

...and surprisingly enough,

what it showed was that there were
three

what seemed to be underground cellars
on that land.

We all agreed that there was a real
possibility

that the gold could be there.

Surveillance starts to be ramped up
on Noye.

His house is subject to visual
surveillance,

trying to identify the network

around Noye's house.

I was standing in the hedgerows for
hours on end,

in the freezing cold, recording
registration numbers,

and one of the cars that turned up on
more than one occasion

was a green Cavalier.

POLICE RADIO CHATTER

We saw very heavy briefcases being
loaded into the back of a car.

These briefcases were unmanageable.

They were clearly extremely heavy,

which we strongly suspected contained
gold.

ENGINE TURNS OVER

The driver of the Cavalier is Brian
Reeder...

...a criminal, with a known connection
to the two convicted

robbers, Robinson and McAvoy.

POLICE RADIO CHATTER

Yes.

We're on the start of the M4. Over.

Yes. All received. Stand by.

We followed Reeder down the M4.

We saw the Jaguar turn up.

A heavy briefcase was removed from the
Cavalier

and transferred into the Jaguar.

POLICE RADIO:
Crombie-style overcoat.

Grey trousers, collar and tie. Very
smart.

We made the decision that we were
going to stick with the Jaguar,

which we did, and we followed that the
rest of the way down the M4.

I can confirm that the target is
using the vehicle as described.

Give him some distance as he comes off
the motorway.

♪ These are the things

♪ These are the things

♪ The things that dreams

♪ Are made of... ♪

The police pursuit takes them to

a small-time gold dealer in
Bedminster, Bristol.

♪ ...These are the things

♪ These are the things

♪ The things that dreams

♪ Are made of... ♪

Scadlynn Ltd operated in a fairly
small way.

They had a business over a carpet
shop.

So they would buy people's old gold
rings, gold watches,

jewellery and bits and pieces.

This was working on the edge of the
scrap gold business.

Scadlynn always wanted to make

withdrawals in cash.

And then, one day, we had

a payment in excess of £30,000,

which was not the norm.

It wasn't the norm for Bedminster,

and it certainly wasn't the norm for
Scadlynn's.

The withdrawals grew and grew and
grew.

50. 100. 150... 200,000.

Anything up to £400,000 per day.

I realised that it was necessary for
us to report these facts

to our local head office.

They were happy for us to continue
operating the account,

on the basis that there was no risk to
the bank,

in terms of any financial loss.

The commission was attractive. You
know, we were getting

admirably paid for it. It was a very
useful source of income.

Even if a banker in this country

thought there was suspicion,

there was no obligation for the banks
to report it,

because there was no legislation.

What was most important was this bank
and client confidentiality.

In just five short months - from
September 3rd in 1984

through to the end of January '85 -

we paid out just over £10 million to
Scadlynn.

Pretty much all in new £50 notes.

Unaware of the vast transactions
going through Barclays Bank,

the police focused their investigation
into the people

behind gold-dealer Scadlynn's.

Scadlynn's seemed to be run by

a man called John Palmer.

He lived in a beautiful country home
called Battlefields.

And it was very hard to kind of
correlate that level of wealth

and his lifestyle with this

kind of scruffy little gold business
in Bristol.

There was a disconnect here.

We knew that heavy objects -

believed to be gold, but weren't sure
-

were travelling west across to
Scadlynn's

from Noye's home in Kent.

And Brian Boyce was keen to step up
the surveillance on Noye.

I know, as far as I can know,

the conduit and who was on

the conduit. Obviously,

the key area was Noye's home

and the surrounding acres.

There was just insufficient evidence,

or we would have raided

Kenny Noye's property.

We spent weeks on surveillance

and it was long, hard, boring work.

But the picture was starting to take
shape

that we were onto the Brink's-Mat
gold,

and that Noye was central to it.

But we needed someone inside the
grounds.

That's when Brian Boyce brought in
what was known as a CROP,

a Close Rural Observation Post.

CROPs officers were able - because
of their training

and their camouflage - to get very,
very close to the premises

that they were observing, that was the
purpose of it,

and to remain hidden.

On standby to enter Kenneth Noye's

grounds are CROPs officers

Neil Murphy and John Fordham.

John Fordham, who'd been trained in
Northern Ireland

by Army Intelligence and SAS,

was revered within the surveillance
world.

This was the best chance we'd had

to possibly finding all or some of the
gold.

I drove down towards Noye's house.

POLICE RADIO:
Target is next to premises.

I'm listening to Scotland Yard
radio.

I can hear the conversation of those
in the actual operation.

I hear the local controller, suspect
one, Brian Reeder, going in.

The arrival of Reeder, suspected of
transporting gold from Noye's,

triggers the deployment of the CROPs
officers.

POLICE RADIO CHATTER

John Fordham and Neil Murphy were
going to go into the grounds

to be somewhere where they could see
what would happen

when we lose sight of Noye and Reeder.

It was a freezing cold January
evening, it was pitch-black.

John was dressed in battle fatigues.

He had a balaclava mask on.

Their sole purpose was to try to
observe Noye and Reeder together

and to see whether physical gold bars
were being handed

by Noye to Reeder.

- But as they moved forward...
- DOGS BARK

...they disturbed the dogs.

Neil Murphy transmits

that they have problems.

That was when the dogs attacked John
Fordham.

Reeder and Noye came out of the
premises.

Neil Murphy was able to withdraw from
the grounds.

John Fordham was discovered by Kenny
Noye.

Noye was armed with a kitchen knife

and he stabbed John Fordham ten times.

DOGS BARK

The next thing I hear,

"John compromised. John compromised.

"Everyone in. Everyone in."

What had been an entirely covert
surveillance operation broke cover

to get into Hollywood Cottage

to support John Fordham, who was under
attack.

John is running towards them

and then he drops.

He's got ten stab wounds, five in
the front and five in the back.

SIREN WAILS

When I got there...

...I turned and could see John

lying just inside the garden.

Dreadful sight.

As we approached the cottage...

...saw Noye coming out of the front
door.

I just smashed him as hard as I could.

I said, "Do you realise you've left a
police officer

"dying at the bottom of your garden?"

He said, "I don't give a fuck who he
is. I hope he dies."

SIRENS WAIL

When I get there, it's chaotic.

It was difficult to get control of it.

I gave the order to arrest Kenny Noye
and arrest Reeder

as soon as we can find him.

THEME MUSIC

Two men are still being questioned
in connection with

the murder of a police officer in
Kent.

A massive police search is under way.

The family have not been at home
today.

And this morning, their dogs were
taken away by the RSPCA.

An intense search took place at
Noye's house.

Large amounts of new £50 notes were
discovered.

They were all found

to have the prefix A24.

The question was,

where had these notes come from?

It wasn't until late on the Sunday
afternoon, however,

that the real discovery took place.

The phone went. Quite an excitable
voice the other end said,

"Is that you, guv'nor? We've just
found 11 bars of melted gold

"under a pot about ten yards

"from where John Fordham had been
stabbed."

Finding the gold was vindication.

Noye was central to the whole
operation.

He was the kingpin, no question.

But the gold bore no resemblance to
the ingots

that had gone missing from Heathrow.

Brian Boyce's team may have struck
gold,

but they still need conclusive
evidence

that it's come from the Brink's-Mat
haul.

In search of further proof, detectives
raid the home of

John Palmer, the man behind
gold-dealer Scadlynn's.

NEWS REPORT: A task force of
more than two dozen police officers

are carrying out a minute search of
the acres of woodland

behind the Palmers' home.

In the woods, less than 100 yards from
the house,

police discovered a corrugated iron
smelting plant.

There was a smelter in the grounds.

In the house, there were two gold bars
down the back of a sofa,

and there were piles of new £50 notes.

We realised that they were all

A24 series. Strong evidence

of linkage between Kenneth Noye

and Palmer's operation.

NEWS REPORT: The Palmers are on holiday.

Today, their German dogs were still
guarding the courtyard.

Things were happening extremely
quickly.

Raids were going on at Scadlynn's.

Immediately, it showed that an immense
amount of gold

had been flowing through this
corner-shop operation.

The police now believe they've
uncovered

the trail of half of the stolen
gold...

...and how it's been disguised

and transformed into cash.

When the pure gold from the robbery

was smelted down by Palmer,

he added old pennies and

other bits of scrap metal in,

so that it would be less pure

and less likely to be traced back to
the original robbery,

as well as being more plausible as
ordinary gold

that they could sell on the open
market.

John Palmer then sold it through

his company, Scadlynn's,

on to the legitimate

big bullion dealers.

And in fact, some of the Brink's-Mat
gold

actually was sold back in its impure
form

to its original owners, Johnson
Matthey.

With more than £10 million flowing
through Scadlynn's

into the criminal economy, the police
must track down John Palmer.

MUSIC: New Gold Dreams by Simple Minds

♪ New gold dreams

♪ Crashing beats and fantasy

♪ Setting sun in front of me... ♪

NEWS REPORT: The intensive police
raid on John Palmer's home happened

while he was on holiday in Tenerife.

It might have been thought that John
Palmer

would, in a way, have gone to ground
in Tenerife. Not at all.

You claim you are totally innocent and
unconnected

- with any of the matters.
- I'm completely innocent

of anything to do with this so-called

Mat's Brink bullion raid. I know
nothing of it.

♪ ...New gold dream... ♪

There's no doubt that John Palmer
had originally intended

to go on holiday...

♪ ...New gold dream... ♪

...but once he was there

and he knew that we wanted him back,
he wasn't coming.

Unfortunately, there was no
extradition treaty

between the UK and Spain,

so John Palmer was free to sit on a
beach,

and that is precisely what he
continued to do.

With John Palmer untouchable in
Tenerife,

the police are no closer to tracking
down the £10 million in cash

laundered through Scadlynn's.

Now, a new piece of intelligence moves
the hunt across Europe.

A Mercedes with a couple

in the front seats was stopped

at the border post going from Belgium
into West Germany.

They said they were going on holiday,

where they intended to buy antiques

for their shop back in Maidstone.

Their Mercedes car was searched,

and under the back seat were found no
less than £710,000,

the majority of it in new £50 notes.

So the border guards checked with

Scotland Yard about the driver and the
passenger,

and it comes back negative.

They're not wanted for anything.

So the border guards let them go
through.

Indeed, the customs officers wished
them a happy holiday.

But they had made a note of the serial
numbers of the notes,

which was passed to Interpol.

They were A24 notes.

A24 series note is

very significant indeed.

Because of the demand for cash

at Barclays Bank in Bedminster -

caused by the volume of Scadlynn's
business -

the Bank of England had to make
special arrangements to provide

the bank with sufficient cash,

and the way they did it was

to provide them with £50 notes

in the A24 series.

Nobody else was provided with A24
series notes, only Scadlynn's.

That meant money that was related to
the Brink's-Mat robbery

was being moved across borders, into
other countries.

The antique dealer told the customs
officials

they were on their way to Switzerland,
to Zurich.

Straight away, the police realised

Zurich meant Swiss banks.

Switzerland was notorious as the most
secretive

banking location in the world.

Any criminal, anyone with shady money,

the Nazis, for heaven's sake, knew
that you banked in Switzerland

because never would they reveal who
you were and how much you had.

The police have hit a wall of
silence in Switzerland.

But back in London, they have plenty
to say at Kenneth Noye's trial

for the murder of John Fordham.

The importance of this particular
trial was daunting,

and it was very, very tense indeed.

I was taken through my evidence and
cross-examined.

I told the jury exactly what Noye had
said to me.

"I don't give a fuck who is, I hope he
dies" were his exact words.

He said it so cold-heartedly and
devoid of any compassion.

In court, Noye did not deny stabbing

John Fordham, but claimed he had been
acting in self-defence.

He was fighting for his life.

He wasn't fighting for his gold. I
mean,

I was in the house as well. He was
fighting for me.

That was the only thing that was in
his mind, I can assure you.

He wasn't concerned about his gold.

SIREN WAILS

NEWS REPORT: The judge, jury
and court officials travelled 25 miles

from the Old Bailey to see for
themselves

where the police officer was killed.

The barrister who defended Noye
painted the picture that John,

the way he was dressed - in combat
fatigues and a balaclava -

that Noye was in fear of his life.

Wouldn't you, confronted by somebody

like this, at night, in your garden,

take any steps necessary to protect
your life

and the lives of your family?

But John was unarmed.

There can be no justification

for stabbing someone...

...ten times.

NEWS REPORT: Tomorrow, after
their bizarre excursion to Kent,

the jury will be back in Court Number
One at the Old Bailey.

We were pretty convinced

that we would get

a successful guilty verdict.

The Flying Squad officers assembled,

with bated breath.

NEWS REPORT: The jury foreman was asked,

"Do you find Kenneth Noye guilty or
not guilty of murdering

"Detective Constable Fordham?"

"Not guilty," said the foreman.

Noye - immaculate, in a grey suit and
striped tie - said,

"Thank you for finding me not guilty
because that's what I am.

"God bless you forever."

We were horrified.

Grown, roughty-toughty detectives

were sobbing in frustration at the
verdict.

I felt rock-bottom

and I felt very lonely. It was clearly
disappointing

to me and my team,

but there were cheers both in the
public gallery

and, of course, on Noye's side.

Marvellous. Absolutely marvellous.

- But I knew that's what the verdict had to be.
- What would your husband

say to Mrs Fordham now, if he could
talk to her?

- What message would he want to go to her?
- He would say, like I feel

and I know he feels, deeply, deeply
sorry,

but he wasn't responsible for her
husband's death.

Mrs Noye has said that she would
like people to spare a thought

for you and offers her sympathy to
you.

What's your reaction to receiving
those sympathies?

Not accepted.

I spoke to Ann Fordham, John's wife.

I said how sorry I was.

His father was also there and said to
me,

"I hold you responsible for my son's
death."

And I said to him,

"Well, in some ways, I am,

"but that was my duty."

Having lost the murder trial...

...there had to be some justice for
John's relatives.

We had to see Noye go to jail, which
is where he deserved to be.

Five months after Kenneth Noye's
acquittal for murder,

the police have a second chance to put
him behind bars

for handling the Brink's-Mat gold.

Kenny Noye's trial

for dishonest handling was based very
largely on

some circumstantial evidence.

But finding the A24 notes in Noye's
home -

which connected him to Scadlynn's,

which connected him to Palmer,

which connected to money being
transported across Europe -

was absolutely critical in showing

that he was part of the conversion of
the gold into cash.

Nothing is certain, so it was a
difficult

and a worrying time before the trial.

The pressure was on me and the squad
to get success

in the handling trial.

When Noye appeared in the murder
trial, he was able to successfully

present himself as a terrified
householder.

When it came to the handling of the
proceeds of the raid,

he projected a rather different image.

He was cocky, he was sneering,

and he seemed to be relatively happy

to present the image of a fairly nasty
piece of work.

And I think ultimately, that's what
the jury decided.

For his part in the conspiracy

to handle the Brink's-Mat gold

and evading VAT,

Kenneth Noye is jailed for 14 years.

NEWS REPORT: Outside the court,
a friend of Noye's gave his reaction

by attacking a photographer.

Defendant Kenneth Noye

shouted insults and abuse at the jury.

He misread the jury.

He turned to them from the dock

and screamed, "I hope you all die of
cancer!"

There was a palpable sense of relief
around the Yard

that Noye had been convicted.

To know that Fordham's part in
identifying him

and being in that garden at the time
meant something.

Another major player the police

would like to see convicted

is John Palmer.

18 months after his arrival in
Tenerife,

the law finally catches up with him.

NEWS REPORT: Significantly, a new

Anglo-Spanish extradition law came
into force,

a treaty which Home Secretary

Douglas Hurd described tonight as
bringing to an end

"the unedifying spectacle of wanted
men fleeing to Spain"

to evade justice.

Before this, John Palmer was free to
sit on a beach

and stick two fingers up to Scotland
Yard.

But after 18 months,

the Spanish authorities said,

"You've got to go, mate. You've got to
go back to the UK."

NEWS REPORT: John Palmer today
finally came home to sort out

what he's described as "a small
problem in London".

The detailed interrogation at
Kennington Police Station

is being conducted by Detective Chief
Superintendent Brian Boyce.

The net was closing,

but I had to prove not only that he
handled the gold,

but he handled it knowing it to be
stolen.

At the Old Bailey, Palmer admitted
he'd smelted the gold,

but he claimed that he had

no knowledge that the gold was from
the robbery.

He smelted gold all the time. He had
no idea where it came from.

And extraordinarily, I think,

the jury believed him and he was
acquitted.

Palmer blew a kiss to his wife

in the gallery and the jury.

- Wonderful. - Were you expecting it?
- Yes, of course.

DOGS BARK

John Palmer was a convincing man.

He had swayed the jury.

The link between him,

Noye, Scadlynn's,

all of that pointed to Palmer having

a pivotal role in the disposal of the
assets from this robbery,

and to see him acquitted hurt.

NEWS REPORT: John Palmer himself
emerged with his wife mid-morning

to face a barrage of press and TV
cameras.

What do you think of the last year,
when you look back at it?

Oh, I think it's been torture over
the last couple of years, you know?

The only moment John Palmer seemed

nonplussed was when he was presented

with an early Easter egg.

Memories of anything gold are clearly
painful.

Now a free man, John Palmer heads
straight back to Tenerife

to invest his money

in a multimillion-pound time-share
scam.

NEWS REPORT: Playa de las Americas

is not finished yet. Virtually
everywhere

you look, there is building work, and
the British are seen

as the most likely buyers for many of
these new properties.

This was quite a turning point in
John Palmer's "career".

He bought up a considerable amount

of property. He defrauded

many, many investors.

And he was laundering money for

a lot of criminals, not just the
original Brink's-Mat robbers.

At his height as the property king in
Tenerife,

Palmer was earning so much money,

he actually made the Times Rich List,

very close to the Queen.

Palmer had become a Mr Big,

a world player in laundering money,

and this was all on the back of the
money he made

from smelting the gold from the
Brink's-Mat robbery.

With half of the stolen gold still
unaccounted for

and the ten million in cash laundered
through Scadlynn's

beyond the police's reach,

they now delve deeper into the affairs
of those convicted,

turning to robber Micky McAvoy.

We found out that Jacqueline McAvoy,

Micky McAvoy's wife...

...had moved very recently

to a very expensive area.

We also discovered Kathy Meacock,

the girlfriend of Micky McAvoy,

was now living in a farmhouse and
grounds,

Turpington Farm, from being in a
council house.

DOGS BARK FEROCIOUSLY

I put officers to investigate,

and as the officers were introducing
themselves, two Rottweilers

came running round the corner and
Kathy shouted to them,

"Brinks, Brinks! Mat, Mat! Get down!"

When the police looked at the deeds
and paperwork from Kathy Meacock's

new house in the countryside,

they discovered that the conveyance
had been done by

a legal firm owned by a solicitor
called Michael Relton.

Relton was a professional.

He was a very well-known,

highly successful criminal solicitor.
His clients

were, insofar as one can say,

the creme de la creme of the criminal
fraternity.

Relton was arrested, and we found

all the papers that related to the
purchase of the two properties,

which showed Relton providing the
money.

This was pretty damning evidence.

Once this was put to Relton...

...he broke.

Relton's involvement extends far
beyond the purchase of two houses.

On behalf of the Brink's-Mat robbers,

he's moved money through a complex web
of accounts across Europe.

For the police, his revelations unlock
what has happened

to the Brink's-Mat cash.

Here, we had hard evidence

of the movement of the money,

the payment for the properties

and the names of the accounts in the
Swiss banks

where this money was being held.

I could hardly believe my ears.

When Relton decided to come clean,

it became clear that he was
effectively the spider

in the middle of this network of money
laundering

for the Brink's-Mat robbers

that enabled them to hide where the
money had gone.

The disclosure that Relton made was
really a sea change.

We were able to discover the complete

laundering operation that Relton had
created.

Taking the proceeds of crime and
making them look like the proceeds

of legitimate business.

One way to do that is to funnel

the proceeds of the crime into
property.

In London, one of the biggest

urban development projects in Europe

proves an irresistible

investment opportunity.

TELEVISION:
Within a stone's throw

of prosperous, land-hungry

Central London, you had

these vast acres of dereliction.

You only have to go to Docklands to
realise that

the sort of opportunities there are
not being unleashed.

NEWS REPORT: Today, Mrs Thatcher
was at the controls of a 25-ton

pile driver, helping to lay the
foundations in London's Docklands.

Incredibly, the Brink's-Mat robbers
and handlers

invested the proceeds of this gold

in developing London Docklands.

Mr Relton had made

very substantial investments,

to the tune of some £6 million.

The money was now finding its way

into the legitimate economy in the
UK...

...that frankly,

the existing laws at the time

were completely inadequate to deal
with it.

MUSIC: Everybody Wants to Rule the
World by Tears for Fears

♪ ...The most of freedom

♪ And of pleasure

♪ Nothing ever lasts forever

♪ Everybody wants to rule the world. ♪

The problem with large sums of money

being invested by criminals

is that it makes them like mafia
bosses. It gives them

access to parts of society that
criminals didn't traditionally

have access to, that made them
prominent people.

The criminals began mixing with
professional people -

accountants, bank managers, investment
people.

They were beginning to use those kind
of networks

to launder quite substantial sums of
money.

As the police unravel the network of
accounts

set up by lawyer Michael Relton...

...they discover he's moved money
across to the Isle of Man.

The Isle of Man is a funny old
place.

ENGINES ROAR

It's best known for the TT Races.

But in fact, the way it earns its
living, you might say,

is through financial services.

NEWS REPORT: Every week, British
newspapers carry advertising,

offering to form and manage companies
in the Channel Islands

or the Isle of Man. In 1986,

8,500 new companies were formed.

As part of Michael Relton's network,

money was being channel led out through
the Isle of Man,

where dozens and dozens of companies
had been set up,

all interlinked, but confusing,

so it's not traceable back to
Brink's-Mat.

They were designed to send money to
Miami.

NEWS REPORT: Presenting the biggest
new money-spinner across America.

The entertainment phenomenon of the
'80s.

The white powder is five times as
expensive as gold.

MUSIC: Temptation by Heaven 17

♪ Leave no track

♪ Don't look back

♪ All I desire

♪ Temptation

♪ Keep climbing higher and higher

♪ Temptation

♪ Adorable creatures

♪ Temptation

♪ With unacceptable features

♪ Temptation... ♪

We found that moneys from the Isle
of Man

were going over to the States.

We sent a group of officers

to liaise with the CIA and the FBI.

It was felt that there was some sort
of liaison with the US mafia.

NEWS REPORT: British detectives
have uncovered a drug

and money-laundering operation.

The Scotland Yard discoveries are a
major coup,

throwing light on drug deals and
money-laundering operations

worth $30 million.

♪ ...Leave no trace

♪ Hide your face... ♪

As the police track Brink's-Mat cash
through the drug trade in Miami,

they also discover that the money has
been invested in ecstasy,

which now fuels illegal raves in the

abandoned warehouses of Britain.

NEWS REPORT: A police officer
monitors pirate radio stations

to get details of acid house parties
being held this weekend.

Have you got any raves on this
weekend?

♪ Pump up the volume Pump up the
volume

♪ Pump up the volume Dance, dance... ♪

As the investigation unfolded, it
became clear that some of

the Brink's-Mat money had gone through
the United States

and it had come back again, and it had
funded the importation

of ecstasy into this country.

This was something different.

♪ ...Brothers and sisters Pump up the
volume... ♪

The money from the Brink's-Mat
robbery had become seed funding

for a whole new drug culture.

♪ ...Do it!

♪ Do it. Do it... ♪

This was opening our eyes

to the extent of criminality,

to the pervasiveness of it, to where
it was reaching in society.

You could almost trace the trail

from one tablet of ecstasy...

♪ ...Pump up the volume Pump up the
volume

♪ Pump up the volume Dance, dance. ♪

...all the way back to a warehouse at
Heathrow.

Brink's-Mat shows how crime changed
in Britain in the 1980s.

The switch from armed robbery through
to the drugs trade,

crime was becoming much more
professionalised.

This was money laundering on a
different scale.

It was involving lawyers and bankers
and accountants,

who could all see the immense amount
of wealth that could be generated

from criminal funds.

It became international.

The banks needed to be much more
tightly regulated

when it came to money laundering.

They needed to account for why money
was moving across the world

without any explanation.

Since the 1990s,

financial institutions must report

any unusual activity.

Client confidentiality hides no-one.

But criminals, corrupt bankers,

lawyers and accountants

will always exploit loopholes in the
system.

Now that we have a global network

of money men who specialise in money
laundering,

there is a lot of dirty money

flushing around London now.

MUSIC: Fools Gold by The Stone Roses

Many of the high-rise blocks that

have been built in the last decade

have arisen from the proceeds of some
sort of crime or dodgy dealing.

This started

with this surge of money

that came from the Brink's-Mat
robbery.

It's now bigger and more
sophisticated,

but I think Brink's-Mat was the
template.

♪ I'm standing alone

♪ I'm watching you all

♪ I'm seeing you sinking

♪ I'm standing alone

♪ You're weighing the gold

♪ I'm watching you sinking

♪ Fools gold... ♪