The largest gold heist in British history is a cautionary tale about how tenuous the concept of 'honour amongst thieves' is, especially when the prize is worth a staggering £26 million. However, the police nevertheless failed to catch the majority of those involved in the raid and subsequent distribution, nor have they ever managed to recover the bulk of the bullion. There are numerous "urban myths" surrounding the robbery that are still in place today and there are also individuals still trying to locate the remainder of the bullion. The alleged "curse" of the Brinks Mat robbery is still very much ingrained in the UK's criminal underworld.
As much as 70 per cent of the haul has never been traced and is still deemed to be sloshing around London’s criminal underworld and property market today. Large sums were supposedly invested in the Docklands boom of the Eighties and Nineties. A portion was even used to buy a section of Cheltenham Ladies’ College which was then converted and sold off into flats. The gang, unused to handling bullion, recruited a network of underworld accomplices to melt it down into scrap.
At 6.30 am on 26 November 1983, a South London gang of six armed robbers, headed by Brian Robinson and Mickey McAvoy, broke into the Brinks Mat warehouse at Heathrow Airport, expecting to make off with about £3 million in cash. Inside help was provided by Anthony Black, a Brinks Mat security guard who happened to be living with Brian Robinson’s sister at the time. Black’s information gave the gang quick access to the site, where they overpowered the guards and encouraged them to provide the combination to the safe, by pouring petrol over them and threatening to set them alight.
It's alleged, the security guard was unable to remember the combination to the safe; obviously the situation must have been something from a grainy gangster film. Covered in petrol, shotgun to the head; the robber screaming becoming more irate. Adrenaline flowing, the security guard just couldn't get it together; who knew what was going to happen, the whole robbery looked like it was going to be a disaster, when the safe was finally opened, the expected piles of easily transported cash turned out to be 6,800 gold bars divided into 76 cases, as well as a stash of £100,000 worth of cut and uncut diamonds, all bound for the Far East.
It quickly became apparent that the transport of many tonnes of gold would be challenging, and the quick 'smash and grab' became a protracted operation, as several members of the gang were sent to seek sturdier transport. The gang used the warehouse’s forklift truck to load the gold into the getaway van but it still took them almost two hours to clear the safe of its contents. By 8.15 am they left the Brinks Mat warehouse, and the alarm was raised by one of the guards at 8.30 am.
The conversion of £26 million worth of bullion into cash was to prove a major headache for the gang and they were forced to approach a senior underworld figure, known only as 'The Fox'. He had the necessary gangland connections to smelt down and distribute the gold, specifically with the assistance of the Adams family, one of London’s most notorious crime syndicates.
