All language subtitles for Blood.Money.The.Curse.of.Brinks.Mat.Robbery.2023 Eng

This was fantasy money
ancl fantasy crime.

Just the sheer bulk of the loads
was just astonishing.

'This is a robbery
of an unprecedented scam.'

It's a major event
for Scotland Yard.

'I didn't know that at the end
of it, we would live or die.'

They say time heals,

but it's a day
I'll never, ever forget.

Never forget that one.

CHRIS jARMAN: In November 1983,

a gang of armed robbers
broke into a security depot

near London's Heathrow Airport

and made off with three tonnes
of pure gold worth £26 million.

It's the biggest robbery
in the world.

The crime of the century.

NEWSREADER: Men carrying pistols
and wearing balaclavas

burst into the warehouse
a mile from the airport.

NEWSREADER 2: They handcuffed
the six guards on duty

and doused them with petrol.

Nearly 40 years on,

some of the robbers
have never been caught,

and much of the gold
has never been recovered.

Now officers and key witnesses,

many speaking for the first time,

reveal the inside story
of the hunt for the bullion

and the men behind
this audacious robbery.

On a cold Saturday morning
in late November 1983,

six security guards get ready
for their shift

at the Brink's-Mat security depot
near Heathrow.

I'd set the alarm,

then I just got up,
got ready for work,

normally had a cup of coffee.

But then I drove to work.

I only lived about five miles away.

At around 6:30am,
Mike arrives at the depot.

I was a supervisor on duty that clay.

He turns off the alarms
and lets the other guards in.

I then re-locked the door,
and we went upstairs.

One of the lads was making the teas.

It was a very normal morning
for them.

They sat and had a cup of tea.

One man was missing -
that was a man called Tony Black.

He was, as usual, late.

BELL RINGS

The doorbell went,

so I went downstairs,
and it was Tony Black.

He says he's been up all night.
He says he's got an upset stomach.

Ancl after a few minutes,
he says he has to go to the toilet,

and he disappears off, apparently,
to the lavatory.

Tony Black then returns and joins
the other guards in the canteen.

Moments later,

a gang of up to six masked armed men
burst through the door.

All of a sudden,
I could hear tables and chairs

being really knocked over,
a lot of noise.

CLATTERING

Ancl this man came running at me
with a balaclava on,

with a pistol in his hands.

They hit one of the guards
around the head

because he doesn't respond
quickly enough,

and he falls to the ground.

It's an incredibly aggressive
attack on these men.

All I was looking at was the pistol
a few inches away from my head.

I was ordered on the floor,

and then I was hooded,

handcuffed behind my back,
got a bit of a kicking.

Somehow, the robbers know that Mike

and another guard are the only ones
with access to the depot's vaults,

where cash and valuable items
are usually stored.

I was picked up and dragged out
into the manager's office,

and they told me
to breathe in deeply,

and with a knife,
they cut the belt on my jeans.

And they put a rag under my hood.

They said, "Do you know what
that smell is?" I said, "Petrol."

Ancl then they just poured petrol
from my chest all the way down.

I was thinking,
"Are they gonna put a match to me?"

They've got a threat of either
being shot or set on fire.

They must have been
absolutely terrified.

The thing is, petrol burns.

You do not have to
put a match to it.

You get soaked in petrol,

and you're gonna do
whatever they tell you to do.

Mike and the other guard
are forced downstairs to the vaults.

They knew too much.

They knew exactly what to do,
where they were going,

and that is very, very scary
and frightening,

especially when they tell you
where you live.

Fearing for their lives,
the guards open the main vault door.

And the robbers demand access
to the safes within.

Ancl that's when I just said,

"Dear God, what I'd do to stay alive
and keep my lads alive."

I'm sorry, but you just rolled over.

Each card has
half of the security combination

to open the safes.

Mike enters his,

but the other guard struggles
under the pressure.

The real stress that's on him

were these men pointing guns at him,
threatening to set him on fire.

He just can't recall it.

He's not prevaricating,
but the robbers don't believe him.

I could hear matches being struck.

They were getting really violent
with him,

and they'd got petrol on him,
same as I had,

and you were
just fearing the worst then.

I called out, "Leave him alone!"

Ancl with that,
the person who was looking after me

just shoved a firearm straight
in my ear and said, "Shut it."

I honestly thought
they might get so fed up,

they might just start shooting.

Frustrated, the robbers start
looking around the vault.

Ancl lo and behold, there's
a pile of large, grey boxes.

Ancl then one of them
produces a knife,

whips open the tape on the top,

and it contains gold bars.

They are looking at this thinking,

"Hang on, you know,
we weren't expecting this."

Ancl sure enough,
every single box contains gold bars,

each weighing a kilo.

They discover
£26 million worth of gold.

Well, can you imagine, they've
gone from frustration to elation.

It's every robber's dream
come true.

I didn't know whether,
at the end of it,

we would live or die.

You know, they could've
just walked out the door

and said, "Goodbye, lads."
Bang, bang.

They've got a fairly battered
old Transit van, which was stolen.

That's got to take the weight
of three tonnes of gold.

They load it all in,
and they're off.

The guards eventually
managed to escape.

They raised the alarm,

and that kicked off
one of the biggest investigations

in Scotland Yard's history.

NEWSREADER:
Britain's biggest-ever robbery.

Gold bars were stolen
near Heath row Airport.

NEWSREADER 2: Shortly before
seven o'clock this morning,

men carrying guns and wearing
balaclava helmets burst in.

They handcuffed the six guards
on duty and doused them with petrol.

It was a massive story.

It was being discussed
in every household.

When it was seen,
it was turning left.

Everybody knew about it.

It was a media circus.
Everybody wanted to know the detail.

"How big is this? Is it true?

"Did they really get
three tonnes of gold?"

I'm glued to my typewriter.

Gradually, you know,
it started to emerge

that this was not just big,
it was actually off the scale.

Within the criminal fraternity,
if you like,

this was regarded
as being something very special.

This was the FA Cup. This was
the peak of someone's career.

In the '80s, armed robbery
was a weekly event in London -

and not just one, several.

Robbers were hitting banks,
building societies, post offices.

The security industry
was lagging behind,

and gradually,
the organised criminals of the time

tended to look to armed robbers
as an elite.

What was very clear from the outset

was that they knew
what they were doing.

They had serious weapons.
This was a job for the Flying Squad.

The Flying Squad
were an elite police unit,

whose main tasks at this time
in the '70s and '80s

was dealing with armed robbery.

This was no place
for shrinking violets.

This was a place
where dedicated police officers

were putting their life on the line
every clay.

CHRIS jARMAN:
Detectives from the Flying Squad

immediately launch
a major investigation.

Scotland Yard was electric.

Everybody was there.

There would have been
a lot of pressure from the media

and from their superiors
to get results,

to get some bodies in,
to nick people.

It had become, you know,

an issue which had
gone across the desk

at Number 10 Downing Street.

You could bet your life
that the Prime Minister

was leaning on the Home Secretary,
saying,

"Get all that gold back."

One of the officers brought in
to work on the case

was Detective Sergeant Alan Branch.

He's agreed to speak publicly about
the robbery for the first time.

This robbery was extremely big.

It was the most valuable

and the biggest robbery
we had dealt with.

They'd got away with a huge haul.

Far more gold than they anticipated.

I went up in a helicopter
with another chap

looking for anything
that would be suspicious...

...thinking that the gold
would be stashed fairly quickly,

rather than risk
going halfway across London.

Meanwhile, other officers
search the scene for clues.

The first thing
is a kind of forensic assault

on the Brink's-Mat warehouse.

This robbery preceded

some of the amazing
forensic science tools

the police have these clays,
like DNA in particular.

The scene was examined
for fingerprints,

but these guys were gloved up.

CCTV was not very useful.

There's one camera,
it's pointing away from the door.

Ancl I think the robbers
probably knew that.

DICK HOBBS: At that point,
detectives were pretty much reliant

on their knowledge
of the criminal community.

So they would've been thinking,

"Right, who's been active lately?
Who's busy?"

They're listening
to telephone intercepts.

They're listening to what's going on
out there on the streets.

Ancl they're talking to informers.

"What's the word?
Who's involved in this?"

They would've all had
their own theories

about who might have clone it,

so these would be busy,
smoke-filled rooms,

bits of paper being passed around,
telephones ringing.

Officers bring the guards
from the depot to the station

to take statements.

The early statements are revealing.

It's quite clear
that the robbers knew

the inside of that warehouse
almost as well as they did.

And inquiries at the scene
do reveal one crucial clue.

There's no forced entry.

These guys have been let in
to the building.

It has to be an inside job.

Detectives decide to take
a closer look at the guards.

They bring them
back to the warehouse

to put their statements to the test.

And, unusually, they film the guards
as they describe the raid

in the hope it will reveal clues

or inconsistencies
in their statements.

Security guard Mike Scouse
has never seen the footage before.

'I said I can't do it in handcuffs.

'Ancl then they released
the right handcuff.'

Well, it takes you back
to 39 years ago.

Them vaults.

I don't think we were shown this.
This is police evidence.

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

I had to wear jogging bottoms
because, my petrol burns,

I couldn't wear trousers.

'I was then dragged back,
put in, handcuffed...

'I was sat down here...'

It's a clay I'll never, ever forget.

Never forget that one.

Detectives are satisfied
with Mike's account.

They follow the same drill
with another guard, Tony Black.

HIGH-PITCHED WHISTLING

MAN: 'That's the noise
I was on about.'

Any detective officer
that has conducted interviews

watches for the body language.

You don't need to be too expert

to see the discomfort
in this individual.

His hands are wringing all the time,
pushing away at his thumbs.

Black claims he was forced
to open the shutter doors

to allow the robbers
to bring in their van,

but that he was unable to see
the gang because of his position.

OFFICER:
'From where you were standing,

'could you see the shutters open?'

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

He says he's manoeuvred himself
into a corner,

and he can't see anything.
It's absolute nonsense.

He would've pressed the button

and looked to see
if the door's actually opened.

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

'Erm...
I think might have even been closer

'cos I was doing it like that,
rather than...

'..like that,
so I must've been about here.'

I think it was pretty clear
to the officers

that were there on the clay
that this man was lying.

Detectives now need to establish
what Black is hiding

and why he might be hiding it.

The focus was now firmly
on Tony Black.

We realised that his sister

was the girlfriend
of Brian Robinson,

who'd had a history of planning
these large robberies.

Black's sister
was never implicated in the crime,

but the connection
was of great interest.

Meanwhile, the other guards'
statements also reveal

that Black disappeared
shortly before the robbers arrived.

Ancl that, obviously,
gave us a huge clue

as to who to concentrate on.

As officers begin
to build their case,

the robbers are on the run.

And they're facing
a major challenge -

how to get rid of the three tonnes
of Brink's-Mat gold they've stolen.

They thought
they were gonna be getting cash,

which, of course,
they would have preferred,

because, you know,
cash is instantly movable,

and you can do things with cash.

On the one hand,
with that amount of gold,

you are incredibly rich.

But on the other,
you can't spend a penny of it.

They have to find out
how to transfer this gold into cash.

Moving that much gold,
turning that much gold into cash,

would've been a very, very big job.

While the gang devise a plan
to sell their gold,

eight days after the robbery,

security guard Tony Black
is brought back in for questioning.

He was very nervous,

sweating quite a lot.

But for quite a long time,
he denied any knowledge.

You're looking for any little lever
you can have against him.

You put it to him that he, alone,
goes to the toilet...

...and not long afterwards,

a team of serious armed robbers
come in.

Ancl the fact that his sister
is living with a major criminal

is too much of a coincidence.

Alan and the team tell Black

that he could end up
with a lighter sentence

if he agrees to talk.

He wasn't a villain
in the usual sense of it.

He was just another guard,
normal sort of person.

So enormous pressure on him.

The fear of going away
for an awful long time,

and the magnitude of the robbery,

was too much for him,
and he eventually confessed.

When Black realises that
the game is up,

he admits to being the inside agent.

But more importantly than that,
he becomes an informant.

Tony Black gives us three names

of people he believes
were involved in the robbery.

Brian Robinson, Micky McAvoy
and Tony White.

Micky McAvoy was
a South East London criminal.

Tony White was known
by the intelligence branch

to be a close associate
of McAvoy and Robinson.

It came as no surprise.

Tony Black also reveals

that he led the robbers
into the warehouse

on the morning of the raid,

and that he'd helped them plan it.

He'd given them
the layout of the place,

so they knew exactly where to go,
and what to do, and what to expect.

Black now needs to be guarded
around the clock.

Cos once he'd confessed,

the evidence against the robbers
was quite...

well, it was incredibly severe.

If he walks out
of that police station

and anybody finds out that
he has grassed up the robbers,

his life expectancy is very limited.

So he's held,
he's put in police custody,

and he's protected 24/7.

Black is the key witness.

Lose Black, lose the case.

I heard on the news
on Monday morning

that Tony Black had been arrested.

And I shook, and I shook,
and I shook, and I shook.

Because I didn't think it was him.

On the sixth of December,
ten days after the robbery,

police move in
on the suspected robbers.

The squad officers go out
early in the morning,

bash on the doors,

and bring all three of them
into custody.

It's a big moment in
the investigation for the officers,

there's no doubt about that.

But it also sends out a message
to people who are not in custody

that we're coming.

The men are questioned
for several days,

but all deny
being involved in the robbery.

The suspects are held in custody,

whilst inside man Tony Black
appears at the Old Bailey.

He pleads guilty
to his part in the robbery.

He is sentenced to six years
by judge Tudor Price,

who says in sentencing him,

"Never again
will your life be safe."

And he's right.
He will always be a target.

So, Black started life again
under a completely new identity.

He would have been given a new name,
a new National Insurance number.

Everything about him
would have been changed.

My late father went to his grave
cursing Tony Black.

Because our families
have had to live with

what we've been living with.

By early 1984,
just a few months after the robbery,

three suspects await trial.

And the gang's inside man
is behind bars.

But that doesn't stop their plan
to turn the stolen gold into cash.

The robbers who are on the run
turn to others for help.

Including the now notorious
Kenneth Noye.

NARRATOR: It's three months on from
Britain's biggest ever gold robbery.

And please have had
some early success.

Three suspected robbers...

...Brian Robinson, Micky McAvoy
and Tony White await trial.

But some of the robbers
are still on the run,

and whilst police hunt for them,

they're busy trying to turn
their stolen bullion into cash.

Gold bars are heavily marked.

So this makes it
very, very difficult

to actually market the gold.

You've got to disguise it.

It's absolutely pure gold, 99.9%.
It doesn't get any better.

But that means also,
it's incredibly easy to identify.

They're numbered bars,

you can't take that
into a jeweller's or goldsmith's.

It has to be melted down
and changed.

So, immediately, they're in a world
that they know very little about,

and that's why
they needed to involve

a far wider group of people
than they would have wished to.

At this point,

the people on the outside
turn to Kenneth Noye.

He'd become probably best known
in the criminal underworld

as being a fence.

That's to say, somebody who could
broker deals for stolen property.

He lived in a house
called Hollywood Cottage.

It was a fairly substantial house.

Sits in its own grounds, fenced.

He has a very nice lifestyle.

He comes across as kind of
a sharp businessman.

He was somebody that they believed
could turn the gold into cash.

Noye and his associates
orchestrate a plan

to smelt the gold and create
new, unidentifiable gold bars

that can later be sold.

They recruit the owner of a company
in Bristol called Scadlynn to help.

Scadlynn's was a pretty bog-standard

scrap metal and jewellery dealership
in the West Country.

Their normal business
is buying scrap gold,

selling it back
into the legitimate gold market.

The man tasked with smelting
the Brink's gold for Scadlynn

is its former director, john Palmer.

John Palmer is a very confident,
cocky kind of self-made businessman,

bit of a jack-the-lad.

He's doing very well for himself.

Using a smelter in his back garden,

Palmer changes
the purity of the gold

by melting it down and mixing it
with scrap metal and copper coins.

He's contaminating it
just to disguise its identity.

It's no longer pure gold
when it leaves john Palmer's home.

The new, less pure bars
now need to be authenticated

before they can be sold on.

They're driven 200 miles north
to Sheffield to an assay office.

One of only four places in the UK

with the authority
to test and hallmark gold.

If the assay office discover
the bars contain Brink's-Mat gold,

the gang's plan will be ruined.

Ashley Carson worked
at the assay office at the time

and is now the CEO.

He's speaking for the first time
about what happened.

So, that is 1 kilo of fine gold.

That is as pure as you can get gold.

This is 10 kilos of melted gold.

Round about 40% purity.

Ancl this is very similar
to the Brink's-Mat gold bars

that would have come in
from Scadlynn.

They're very often
not melted very well.

The disguised Brink's-Mat gold bars
now start regularly travelling

from Scadlynn in Bristol
to the assay office.

It's a pretty audacious thing

to actually then go
to an official authority to say,

"Will you authenticate
my stolen gold?"

Ancl not just one bar,
but many, many bars.

I used to unlock the gates
every morning.

The van that had travel led up
from Bristol

would be eagerly waiting outside
for the office open.

It was Monday to Friday,
every clay of the week.

They were driving up
and down the motorway.

If they'd just turned up
with fine gold,

then it would have certainly rung
a lot of alarm bells.

Some of the bars that came in
were so poorly melted

that there were still coins that
stuck out of the top of the bars.

When we look back now,
it's amazing to think

that you wouldn't immediately
associate it with Brink's.

But I don't think at the time

that there was any thoughts
or any suspicions at all.

The disguised Brink's gold continues
to go unnoticed by the assay office.

The new bars are tested and approved

and start to be sold by Scadlynn
to legitimate dealers.

But as the money starts rolling in,

three of the suspected robbers
are about to go on trial.

I think everybody at Scotland Yard
is sitting on their hands

and worrying about whether
we've got enough

to get the convictions.

There is a huge degree
of apprehension.

This is a very important case.

After five-and-a-half weeks
at the Old Bailey,

the jury find Micky McAvoy
and Brian Robinson...

...guilty for their part
in the robbery.

They were pretty stoic about it
because, you know,

people like that
don't get emotional.

They don't cry,
they just take it on the chin.

You know, it goes with the job.

Sometimes, you get caught.

They're sentenced to 25 years
in prison.

Tony White, the third suspect,
is acquitted.

Police have still got a massive
amount of work on their hands,

because first of all,
there are robbers still outstanding

and they haven't got back
any of the gold at this stage.

But as detectives work to track down
the other robbers and the gold,

the investigation is about to take
a devastating turn.

NARRATOR: just over a year
after a violent gang made off

with millions of pounds' worth
of gold

from a security depot near Heathrow,

two of the robbers
are now behind bars.

But officers still need to find
the robbers who are on the run.

And the missing bullion.

We are concerned about
what it could fund.

It could fund drugs,
it could find firearms.

So getting the gold back
was as important

as finding the others
who were involved in the robbery.

Byjanuary, 1985,
14 months after the robbery,

police have a number of people
under surveillance

that they believe
could be helping sell the gold.

We were out there now
looking for the gold,

looking for other members
of the team,

trying to understand
how this was being dealt with

in the criminal underworld.

One of those being watched
by detectives is Kenneth Noye.

The man brought in by the robbers
to help turn the bullion into cash.

Kenneth Noye was known to the police
to be a handler of stolen goods.

And they decided

they need to do some
really close surveillance on him.

Getting close to Noye's house

is considered to be
absolutely essential.

The surveillance techniques
available to the police at the time

were really limited
compared with now.

So then, they were very much reliant
on feet on the ground,

on people watching 24 hours a day.

Now, this was difficult because,
not only did he have a big house,

but he had extensive wooded gardens.

On the evening
of the 26th ofjanuary, 1985...

...two specialist surveillance
officers in camouflage gear

are sent in
to observe Noye's home.

They're creeping towards the house.

They are unarmed.

Their object is to
look, listen and report.

Nothing more than that.

But Noye's dogs soon notice
the officers in the garden

and come running towards them.

One of the officers
manages to retreat.

The other officer
is not able to do so.

Then Kenny Noye appears
in the garden...

...and he stabs the officer
ten times.

The alarm is raised.

And the officer
is taken to hospital...

...where he's tragically
pronounced dead.

The officer
that was stabbed to death

was a man called john Fordham.

He was somebody
I had known all my policing career.

We were young officers together
in East London.

He was as mild-mannered
and pleasant and nice a man

as you could ever wish to meet.
He was a family man.

He just wanted to do the job.

Ancl he gave his life doing it.

It's very traumatic,

especially for the officers
who were there trying to save him.

Horrible feeling.

Now, this was an investigation
that was already supercharged.

But with John's death,
it moved into another gear.

This had to be solved.

Noye is arrested and charged
with john Fordham's murder.

And police extensively search
his home.

We find 11 bars of unmarked gold...

...that looks as though
it's been smelted.

The search also found
a Guinness Book Of Records.

And in it,
the world's biggest robbery,

the Brink's-Mat robbery, is circled.

With Noye in custody,
detectives must now move in

on others who they suspect
are helping sell the gold.

The fear is that
others involved in the handling

would see this as a moment

and decide to either
destroy evidence or run away.

Officers arrest a number of suspects
thought to be involved.

But when they turn up
at the home of john Palmer...

...he's not there.

He has flown to Tenerife.

As it turns out,

he had planned this holiday
before the raid.

His home was searched.

There was a smelter
in the back garden.

It's crucial evidence.

But detectives are unable

to bring Palmer back to the UK
for questioning,

as Tenerife is under
the jurisdiction of Spain.

If you were a villain
and you could get over to Spain,

certainly up to 1985,
you were home and free.

You were OK,
you couldn't be extradited.

They could commit a crime in the UK,

go to Spain,
and not be recalled back.

So it built up its reputation
as a Costa del Crime.

With the police stuck in Britain,

the media attempt
to drag Palmer down.

The BBC send reporter Kate Adie
to try and get the scoop.

She eventually finds him
with his family

in a large tourist hotel.

We tramped out into the main
swimming pool area,

feeling a bit obvious.

Everybody gets up
to have a good look, you know?

Place is rammed
with people on their sunbeds.

And the man...

...turns up in front of us and says,

"I'm john Palmer.
Lovely to see you, Kate."

I said, "Would it be all right,

"we're coming from the BBC,

"to ask you a few questions?"

"Absolutely."

"Well,
it's about the raid on your..."

"Terrible."

He said, "Terrible, wasn't it?"

'I feel that the police
have overreacted.

'I understand they carried out, er,
SAS-type of raids at my property.'

He was full of indignation
about the police raid.

You know,
expressing innocent outrage.

'The police have apparently looked
at a small smelting works

'which are in the grounds
of your house.'

To which he said, "Yes, Kate."

I said, "A gold smelter, Mr Palmer."

'We have a smelting works,
which was put there some...

'approximately three years,
two-and-a-half, three years ago.

'Er... These works was connected
with my former business.'

He was a very cool customer.

Very charming.

Very unfazed.

'And you do claim to be
completely innocent,

'and have no connection

'with the matters which
the police are investigating?'

'I'm completely innocent.

'Ancl nobody that I'm connected with,

'I believe, knows anything about it,
too.'

The whole episode was like
a rather weirdly acted drama.

Because this was a very serious
criminal investigation.

Palmer stays out in Tenerife.

Whilst back in Britain,

the pressure is on detectives

to not only find
the missing robbers, and the gold,

but also the millions of pounds
in cash

that the gang have made

from the sale of some
of the bullion.

Investigations suggest that,
by now,

around half of the gold could
have been smelted and sold.

And police need to know what
the gang are doing with the money.

A new specialist group of officers
are brought in,

including Scotland Yard detective
Terry Burke,

who is also speaking about the case
for the first time.

The investigation was progressing.

More was being found out about how
the gold was being disposed of,

what money was doing,
who was involved.

The gold was getting sold,

large amounts of cash
were generated.

Ancl at that time, it was easy to pay
into banks and businesses

to launder it.

The natural thing was to start
looking at the trail of money.

Ancl by following the trail,
you would hopefully identify

people that may have been
involved in the whole robbery.

And as they work
through the intelligence,

one name comes to their attention.

Could this be
one of the original robbers?

NARRATOR: By September 1985,
the investigation

into the multi-million-pound
Brink's-Mat gold heist is widening.

A new specialist team of officers

are working
to help track down the robbers,

and what remains of the stolen gold.

As well as the millions of pounds
worth of cash

generated from the sale
of some of the bullion.

By following that trail,
you would hopefully identify

people that may have been
involved in the whole robbery.

As they work through intelligence,
one name attracts their attention.

A South London criminal
called john Fleming.

His wealth and his activities

led to us believing that we
should be investigating him

and following the money
that he had generated.

Detectives manage to track him down
in Spain,

where he becomes the focus
of surveillance officer William,

whose years of undercover work mean
we need to protect his identity.

He's decided to speak publicly
about the case for the first time.

Our job was to go and gather
as much evidence as we could

to support the core investigation.

William and the investigation team

launch a surveillance operation
on Fleming

and a number of other suspects.

We had teams on the ground following
people, looking at their activities,

seeing the associates
they were working with.

We had authorised telephone
intercepts.

When you're looking at somebody

and you're not quite sure
what the association is,

you're just going in there
and saying,

"Right, let's get everything we can,
and work out the bits."

Ancl those bits
aren't always obvious.

People are generally guarded
about what they say.

You've got to go through
an awful lot of material

in order to get anything
that makes sense.

Despite hours of surveillance,

William and the team have
insufficient evidence

to link Fleming with the robbery,

and the case against him
is dismissed.

But their time is not wasted.

One other name keeps cropping up.

A key name that came to light
was Patrick Diamond.

Who seemed to run a pretty dodgy
financial services operation

on the Isle of Man.

With Diamond under suspicion,

detectives now make the decision
to raid his office.

And they make a startling discovery.

He's been laundering criminal cash
through offshore companies.

They need to establish if some of it

could be from the sale
of the stolen Brink's-Mat gold.

We arrested Patrick Diamond,
we searched his office,

and took all his records.

To see what he has clone,
and what these companies are doing.

This is the early form
of money-laundering

that criminals were better aware of
than we were as the police.

Officers suspect that some of the
money being laundered by Diamond

could be from the sale
of the stolen Brink's gold.

But it's not clear
who he's laundering money for.

Diamond does, however,
give the police a major tip off.

So, Patrick, in his interviews,

said that, yes,
he was a money launderer,

but he's small fry
compared to lots of others.

In an unexpected twist,
Diamond points detectives

towards a surprising location...

...the British Virgin Islands.

He suggests that they look
into an accountant there,

who we're calling Mr X.

Much to everyone's surprise,

there was a huge money-laundering
operation being carried out there

by this accountant.

But we didn't know if it
was Brink's-Mat money at that time.

It prompted us to look deeper
into what was going on.

Officers find that huge amounts
of cash

are being smuggled onto the island
via light aircraft.

But they need to establish

if there's any connection
to the Brink's-Mat money.

Light planes would fly over,
and they would drop suitcases.

The typical pilot's case
could hold $1 million.

The accountant would pick 'em up,

pay them into the banks
on the island,

and then the process
would start of cleaning it.

Detectives painstakingly work
through Mr X's records

to try and establish where
the money is coming from.

This one individual had been
laundering hundreds of millions

for various crime syndicates.

Ancl in today's worth, it could be
three or four times that amount.

It was money laundering on a scale
that we, certainly in Scotland Yard,

hadn't really been involved in
before.

It sort of made us think
very, very quick,

"My goodness, what is this?
What are we dealing with here?"

I don't think anybody
really understood

how the villains were operating

using offshore facilities to launder
the proceeds of their crime.

But despite all their efforts
and suspicions,

the team can't link
the laundering operation

to the sale
of the Brink's-Mat gold.

The trouble
is with money-laundering,

by its very nature,

is once you put it
into that big washing machine,

it's very difficult to match
the various proceeds

with the original crime.

They may not have been able to prove

that Brink's money was
being laundered

through the Virgin Islands,

but their suspicions remain.

The operation was, however,
a major step

in finding out how criminals
were hiding their cash.

Brink's-Mat was the platform

by which the Met discovered
the depth

of organised crime,
money-laundering,

in far-flung territories.

Back in Britain, some of the money
from the sale of the stolen gold

is found
in other surprising locations.

NARRATOR: Back in Britain,

some of the money from the sale
of the stolen gold

is found
in other surprising locations.

Millions of pounds from the proceeds

are being laundered
through offshore bank accounts

in Switzerland and Lichtenstein.

And coming back to Britain
to be invested.

Including in London's Docklands
area.

Brink's-Mat coincided with the
development of London's Docklands,

and the London property market was
starting to go through the roof.

Ancl this was the first time
that we'd openly seen

professional criminals
having enough capital

to invest in the legitimate economy.

And there were rumours
that some of the money

was also funding
far more illegitimate projects.

I've had a number of police officers
say to me over the years

that a certain amount
of Brink's-Mat gold proceeds

would have gone into financing

particularly the cocaine business
in this country.

While officers suspect
a gang on the outside

are making huge profits
from some of the gold,

convicted robbers Micky McAvoy
and Brian Robinson

are feeling the pressure
of their 25-year sentences.

In September 1985,
nearly two years after the robbery,

they reach out to detectives
to try and make a deal.

They want to return
their half of the gold

in exchange for a mitigation
of their very long sentences.

It's really important for us
to get this back,

get it out of criminal circulation,

so we're keen to do a deal.

We go to see Michael McAvoy and
Brian Robinson

in Leicester Prison.

They don't really want
to be talking to coppers.

McAvoy was a Londoner,
about the same age as myself.

We were sitting across the table,

he's gone one way,
and I've gone another.

It was quite strange. Quite surreal.

McAvoy says the deal
will be handled by Tony White,

the man formerly acquitted
of the robbery.

Roy and a colleague go to meet him
in London's South bank

to organise the handover
of the gold.

White says it can't be clone.

He says that Micky McAvoy
and Brian Robinson

are out of touch.

I think his words were,
"It's been dealt with.

"It's not there any more."

The officers go back
to break the news

to McAvoy and Robinson in prison,

and tell them that their share
of the gold is gone.

We tell them the deal can't be clone,
the gold is gone,

they've lost control.

They didn't speak volumes,

but the look on their faces
said everything.

They were angry, and disappointed.

That's their gold.

As they saw it,
it was theirs to deal with.

Ancl that option's
been taken away from them.

By November 1985,
two years after the robbery,

detectives are still no closer

to getting their hands
on what's left of the gold.

As their search continues,

Kenneth Noye, the man brought in
to help sell the stolen bullion,

goes on trial for the murder
of police officer john Fordham,

pleading self defence.

I was leading counsel
in the Noye murder trial.

It was going to be the case
of the year,

and maybe the case of the decade,
or the century,

so it was very, very exciting
to get.

Noye was an extremely
credible witness.

He had great personal charm,

and he gave his evidence
extremely well.

Ancl he believed in his own defence.

During the trial,

the jury are shown a mock-up
of what Noye faced

when he confronted john Fordham
in his garden.

In this case, Noye was confronted

by someone dressed
in a black balaclava,

with only eye holes visible,

without any identification
that he was a police officer.

He said he believed
that he was under attack,

and he said, in self defence,

he fought with the man,
and stabbed him.

As part of Noye's defence,

the jury are also taken to his home.

REPORTER: 'This evening,
under heavy guard,

'Noye himself came here to view
the house and grounds,

'along with the judge and jury.'

Ancl so everybody decamped
one winter's evening

to the garden in West Kings down

for the jury to be able to see
the front door of Noye's house,

to stand there,
to look down into the woods,

and positioned behind a tree
was a man dressed in a balaclava,

who jumped out from behind the tree

and frightened the life
out of everybody,

judge, jury, onlookers.

Ancl so it was a very effective
defence strategy.

After around 12 hours
of deliberation,

the jury returned its verdict.

Not guilty.

I can remember that the shock

when the jury came back

and announced that they found him
not guilty of murder

was absolutely palpable.

There was a sharp intake of breath
around that court that clay.

He thanked the jury,

and, erm, bowed to them,

and made direct congratulations
to them on their good sense.

It was, emotionally,
extremely tough,

particularly for
the surveillance team

who had been on the ground with him,

for those of us who had known him
all our policing lives,

it was horrendous.

Ancl for his family, who we knew.

But it's not long before Noye
is back in court.

Seven months later, he goes on trial

for conspiring to handle
the stolen Brink's-Mat gold,

and evading VAT.

He is found guilty,
and is sent down for 14 years.

I think he was definitely confident
that, having beaten a murder rap,

that this was gonna be
a piece of cake.

So it must have come
as an icy shock to him

when the jury convicted him.

His mask dropped,

and he screamed at the jury

and told them that he hoped
they would all die of cancer.

Ancl I think you could see
in that moment

that Noye was somebody
who could lose control,

you know, very quickly,
and in an extreme way.

And as Noye begins
his lengthy sentence,

detectives move a step closer

to the man they suspect

smelted large quantities
of the stolen Brink's-Mat gold,

john Palmer.

NARRATOR:
As the police investigation

into the Brink's-Mat bullion robbery
approaches its third year,

the pressure is on officers
to arrest those linked to the raid

who are still at large.

One of those suspected of helping
sell the stolen gold

is john Palmer.

So far, police have been unable
to question him,

because he's been out in Tenerife.

Eventually, his passport expired,
ancl he is brought back to the UK.

I arrested him off the plane.

I think he knew it was coming,

because when you do a plane arrest,
everybody's told to sit still,

and you go on and ask him
to come off.

Ancl he was quite affable,
and no problem.

He didn't say very much.

Palmer is charged with conspiracy
to handle the stolen gold.

And in 1987, he goes on trial,

claiming that he didn't know it was
the stolen bullion

when he smelted it.

Palmer convinces the jury

that he knew nothing of the origins
of the gold.

Yes, he was involved in Scadlynn,

but he didn't know
where the gold came from.

Ancl the jury believed him.

Ancl Palmer walked free.

In the years that follow,

many of those linked to the robbery
would appear in the spotlight again.

After being released from prison,

Kenneth Noye becomes the subject
of a police manhunt.

Amazingly, just when you think

you might never hear
of Kenneth Noye again,

we then heard that a young man
called Stephen Cameron

has been stabbed to death

in what we now call a road rage
incident on the M25.

REPORTER: 'Noye got a knife
from his car

'and stabbed 21-year-old Stephen,
who died soon afterwards.'

Noye then absents himself
from the country.

Officers eventually locate
and arrest him in Spain,

and in 2000, he's jailed for life
for Stephen's murder.

And the law would catch up
with john Palmer, too.

In 2001, he's convicted
of conspiracy to defraud

after conning thousands of
holiday-makers in a timeshare scam.

He gets eight years in prison.

In 2015, he would appear
in the headlines again,

this time as the victim
of a calculated killing.

Palmer is shot dead
at close range in his garden.

His killer has never been found.

There is something now
which is generally referred to

as the curse
of the Brink's-Mat gold.

A number of people

who have been suspected
of involvement in the case,

somewhere along the line,
have been killed.

Ancl John Palmer was one of them.

I remember reading this report

saying that the body of john Palmer
had been found in his garden.

Dangerous, serious crime.

What a mix.

What a mystery.

As for the £26 million worth
of stolen gold,

much of it was never recovered
by police,

and there are rumours that not
all of it was smelted and sold.

There have been various tipoffs
and theories over the years

as to where it might be.

I've heard these stories

about some of the gold being hidden
in fields,

hidden under swimming pools.

It went from the sublime
to the ridiculous.

"It's all in a vault
in Switzerland."

"It's buried under the pitch
at Bristol Rovers."

Which was clearly absurd.

It was in Brazil.

It was in Canada.

It was just about everywhere
in the world.

It was all wild goose chases.

It's like pirates' treasure.
"Where is it buried? Where is it?"

In the 1990s, it was said
by somebody in the jewellery trade

that if you bought a piece
of jewellery

from a British manufacturer,

it was likely to have
Brink's-Mat gold in it.

Cos that's how much gold
had been redistributed.

We turned over an awful lot
of places.

You never know how close or far
you were away from it.

But, er...
I hope I live long enough to hear.

In all,
at least 33 people were arrested,

and 14 convicted,

in connection
with the Brink's-Mat raid.

But despite
an extensive police operation,

only two of the original gang
of robbers have ever been jailed.

Some have been named, some haven't.

Ancl we'll continue to speculate,

because we are fascinated
by this case.

In a sense,
it's still an unsolved crime.

You know, part of the Brink's-Mat
story is still a mystery.

And the impact of Britain's
biggest-ever gold robbery

is still being felt today.

I don't think it's possible

to overestimate the impact
of the Brink's-Mat robbery

and the enquiries
that flowed from it.

It revealed sides of the underworld
which we were unaware of.

It showed the tentacles
of money-laundering.

It's changed the way organised crime
was viewed in this country.

It was a great investigation.

It was life-changing for many.

We learned a huge amount.

It's something
that'll never go away.

So, as you say,
something I'll never forget.

Ancl neither will the other lads.

So...

Such is life.

It must be one of the biggest
criminal investigations

of all time.

There's never been a crime
quite like it.

Ancl there's never been
a fallout from a crime,

in terms of additional lines
of enquiry,

additional crimes,
murders, all of that,

as a result, really,
of an accidental crime.

A gang that went out to steal cash
end up stealing a mountain of gold.

It's just an extraordinary series
of events.

The mystery lives on.