Brink's-MAT robbery
Encyclopedia
The Brink's-MAT robbery occurred on 26 November 1983 when six robbers broke into the Brink's-MAT warehouse at Heathrow Airport, London. The robbers thought they were going to steal £3 million in cash; however, when they arrived, they found three tonnes of gold bullion (worth £26 million). The gang gained entry to the warehouse from security guard Anthony Black, the brother-in-law of Brian Robinson who conceived the raid. Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...

 quickly discovered the family connection and Black confessed to aiding and abetting the raiders, providing them with a key to the main door, and giving them details of security measures. Tried at the Old Bailey
Old Bailey
The Central Criminal Court in England and Wales, commonly known as the Old Bailey from the street in which it stands, is a court building in central London, one of a number of buildings housing the Crown Court...

, Robinson and gang leader Michael McAvoy
Micky McAvoy
"Mad" Micky McAvoy is a convicted English armed robber who was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 1984 for heading up the Brink's-MAT robbery. He was captured ten days after the robbery. The robbery is considered one of the most notorious ever committed, at the time being labelled "the crime of the...

 were each sentenced to 25 years imprisonment for armed robbery, along with Peter Mitchell a notorious armed robber Black received six years.

Prior to his conviction, McAvoy had entrusted part of his share to an associate Brian Perry. Perry recruited Kenneth Noye
Kenneth Noye
Kenneth James Noye is a British criminal who was convicted of the 1996 murder of Stephen Cameron.Noye was involved in laundering the proceeds of the Brink's-MAT robbery in 1983–4. While he was being investigated for his part in the robbery, he stabbed to death police officer John Fordham who was...

, who was an expert in his field, to dispose of the gold. Noye melted down the bullion and recast it for sale. However, the sudden movements of large amounts of money through a Bristol bank came to the notice of the Treasury
HM Treasury
HM Treasury, in full Her Majesty's Treasury, informally The Treasury, is the United Kingdom government department responsible for developing and executing the British government's public finance policy and economic policy...

 who informed the police. Noye was placed under police surveillance and in January 1985 killed a police officer he discovered in his garden. At the resulting trial, the jury found him not guilty on the grounds of self defence. In 1986 Noye was found guilty of conspiracy to handle the Brink's-MAT gold, fined £700,000 and sentenced to 14 years in prison, although he only served seven years before being released in 1994.

However, in 1996 Noye murdered motorist Stephen Cameron during what was reported by the media at the time as a road rage
Road rage
Road rage is an aggressive or angry behavior by a driver of an automobile or other motor vehicle. Such behavior might include rude gestures, verbal insults, deliberately driving in an unsafe or threatening manner, or making threats. Road rage can lead to altercations, assaults, and collisions...

 incident, but which may have been a dispute over drugs (Cameron allegedly being a small-time dealer who owed money to Noye ). Noye fled the country, but was tracked down by police and arrested in Spain in 1998, and deported back to Britain, tried and convicted in 2000. He received a life sentence.

Most of the three tonnes of stolen gold has never been recovered and the other four robbers were never convicted. According to the BBC, some have claimed that anyone wearing gold jewellery bought in the UK after 1983 is probably wearing Brink's-MAT.

Media

In 1992 a movie called Fool's Gold based on the robbery was released with McAvoy portrayed by Sean Bean
Sean Bean
Shaun Mark "Sean" Bean is an English film and stage actor. Bean is best known for playing Boromir in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and, previously, British Colonel Richard Sharpe in the ITV television series Sharpe...

. A documentary was broadcast on Channel 4 in November 2003 on the events of the raid. A subsequent documentary has also been aired in 2010 on the Crime networks.
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