TRUE CRIME
STRIKING GOLD
Almost 40 years ago armed raiders broke into a depot at Heathrow, stealing three tonnes of gold bullion and unintentionally committing the world's biggest crime. Now, ahead of a drama on the Brink's-Mat robbery, we reveal what really happened
by RACHEL HALLIWELL
It has been described as the crime of the century: the infamous Brink's-Mat robbery saw six armed men break into a supposedly impenetrable goods depot near Heathrow Airport and escape with £26m in gold bullion.
What makes this story particularly intriguing is the fact that the astonishingly high value of the haul - worth around £100m in today's money - took even its perpetrators by surprise. When they entered the warehouse they had no idea that they were about to, quite literally, strike gold.
HEATHROW INTERNATIONAL TRADING ESTATE
That's not to say these were bungling, cartoon robbers. Of the six, the two men eventually convicted, Brian Robinson and Micky McAvoy, were hardened criminals and well known to the police. They had spent months planning the raid and expected to get a much smaller haul of around £1m in foreign currency and perhaps £2m worth of gold. Had that been the case then they might well have got away with it.
Instead, they drove away from Brink's-Mat in a van groaning under the weight of the three tonnes of precious metal, feeling they'd struck lucky when actually they'd instantly become victims of their own criminal success. Why? Because now the eyes of the world were on them, with everyone - from the Metropolitan Police's Flying Squad to the media and general public - wanting to know who was behind this audacious robbery and, most importantly, what they had done with the gold.