The Curse of Brink's-Mat: Twenty-five Years of Murder and Mayhem - The Inside Story of the 20th Century's Most Lucrative Armed Robbery

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It’s also true that Boyce sent his men unarmed – he didn’t consider Noye to be dangerous. And, as depicted on screen, Noye’s rottweilers alerted him to the police. Dashing outside, Noye stabbed Fordham 11 times (10 in the show) and claimed he had acted in self-defence. Birmingham-born gangster John Palmer, a jeweller and bullion dealer at the time of the robbery, was arrested but successfully argued in court that he did not realise the gold he was handling was linked to Brink’s-Mat. He was cleared of all the charges against him. Krays' associate George Francis, who was once questioned in regards to the Brink's-Mat money, was gunned down outside his south London office in 2003. Another money-laundering suspect, Brian Perry, was shot dead in 2001, and in December 1998 jeweller Solly Nahome, who had melted down some of the gold, was shot dead outside his home. A police hunt assisted by GCHQ found Noye in Spain, where he was arrested in the resort of Barbate near Gibraltar [21] on 28 August 1998. [22] [23] [24] [25] Cameron's girlfriend Danielle Cable, who witnessed the killing, was secretly flown out to positively identify him, [15] which she did on 27 August. [26] Noye lost an appeal against his extradition from Spain seven months later. [27] He was extradited to Britain in May 1999, nine months after his arrest, and went on trial 10 months later. With her close-cropped peroxide blonde hair and flashy clothes, Savage was a focus of the media coverage. Newspapers reported that she was “visibly shaken” when the judge sentenced her to five years. Where is Kenneth Noye now?

How Noye was caught". The Independent. 14 April 2000 . Retrieved 18 August 2014. [ permanent dead link] The series accurately depicts the murder trial. As seen in episode four, the court really did relocate to Hollywood Cottage at night-time to give the jury a fair impression of how dark it was on the night of the killing, and how Noye could have mistaken Fordham for a dangerous intruder. The theatrical touch helped Noye’s defence; he was found not guilty.The Gold focuses on the robbery itself and the huge police investigation that followed it, which saw several of the ringleaders sent to prison. But what happened to the gangsters involved in the years following the Brink’s-Mat robbery? M25 killer Kenneth Noye to be transferred to open prison". The Guardian. 8 August 2017 . Retrieved 8 August 2017. It’s also true that the guards, under the pressure, couldn’t remember the recently changed passcode to get into the safes – at which point the gunmen discovered the gold bullion, piled in boxes, sitting in the vault. The Ministry of Justice said at the time: “Like all life sentence prisoners released by the independent Parole Board, Kenneth Noye will be on licence for the remainder of his life, subject to strict conditions and faces a return to prison should he fail to comply.”

In the series, Palmer runs the Bristol-based Scadlynn with Garth Chappell, buying up scrap gold and smelting it with Brink’s-mat gold (Palmer in the series also uses coins to smelt, which is accurate – coins used for smelting were found on both Noye and Palmer’s properties). First account of the most valuable haul in British criminal history, the Brinks-Mat robbery of 1983 West, Nigel (18 February 2014). "Historical Dictionary of British Intelligence". Nigel West. ISBN 9780810878976 . Retrieved 18 August 2014. Just last year, allegations against Adams were detailed on Dispatches. A representative stated that Adams was exonerated in all investigations. Why did criminals move to Kent?It was one of those apocryphal stories, in a sense, that every villain dreams of. He pulls a job and finds there’s 20 times more there than he thought there would be.” In the series, John Palmer is mostly responsible for this operation from his Bristol-based gold merchant, Scadlynn. Another book on the crime, Death Warrant by Will Pearson, credits Palmer’s Scadlynn business partner, Garth Chappell, with much of this process and the paperwork, though the real-life paperwork was less convincing. Indeed, Scadlynn’s paperwork did not stand up to scrutiny: investigators noted that Chappell was buying and selling gold for the same amount – suspiciously making no profit. But Scadlynn was somehow making millions from selling what Chappell claimed was scrap gold. Despite Noye being ‘on the square’, Masonic police officers from the highest ranks to the lowest played their parts in bringing Noye to justice,” said Mr Neville.

In particular, they objected to the implication that Noye was assisted by fellow Masons in initially evading justice.John 'Goldfinger' Palmer (played by Tom Cullen in The Gold) was acquitted of laundering the gold in 1987. He was shot and killed at his Essex home in 2015, as reported by The Independent. Solicitor Michael Relton, thought to be the real person behind the character Edwyn Cooper in The Gold, was sentenced to 12 years in prison. He is reportedly living in the US. The real Boyce joined the investigation in late 1984. It’s true he was running surveillance and raids at multiple locations on the same day – and that a misstep in either location would raise the alarm along the gold chain. On January 26, 1985 – more than a year after the Brink’s-Mat heist – surveillance officers surrounded Noye’s country pile, the ostentatiously-named Hollywood Cottage, looking to catch Noye and his courier, Brian Reader, with the gold. One senior Mason told The Telegraph: “A lot of members are furious about The Gold’s portrayal of the Masons. It’s silly nonsense using overly artistic licence.”

Active as a fence, Noye was among those involved in laundering a huge quantity of stolen gold bullion taken during the Brink's-Mat robbery by six armed men on 26 November 1983. [1] While he was being investigated for his involvement in the crime, Noye fatally stabbed Detective Constable John Fordham who was involved in the police surveillance of Noye in the grounds of his home. Acquitted of murder on the grounds of self-defence in December 1985, [7] he was found guilty in July 1986 [8] of conspiracy to handle some of the stolen gold, [9] and of a conspiracy to evade VAT. [1] After his conviction in court, he shouted to the jury "I hope you all die of cancer". [10]a b c d e f g "Kenneth Noye: Police still investigating murder of key witness in road-rage killer's trial 19 years ago". The Independent. 28 May 2019 . Retrieved 15 October 2022. Evans, Martin; Farmer, Ben (24 February 2017). "Road rage killer Kenneth Noye wins open prison challenge". The Daily Telegraph . Retrieved 8 August 2017.