The Brink’s-Mat Robbery

Summary

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Short History Of... – The Brink’s-Mat Robbery

Host: Noiser (John Hopkins)
Guest: Wensley Clarkson (True Crime Writer, Author of "The Curse of Brink's Mat: 25 Years of Murder & Mayhem")
Date: July 5, 2026

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Episode Overview

This gripping episode dives into the audacious 1983 Brink’s-Mat Robbery – the so-called “robbery of the century” – in which a criminal gang made off with three tons of gold bullion from a supposedly secure warehouse near Heathrow Airport. The show details not only the planning and execution of the heist, but the far-reaching aftermath: a wave of violence, betrayals, and the enduring “curse” that haunted all involved for decades.

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Key Topics & Discussion Points

1. Setting the Scene: The Robbery Unfolds

[00:56–06:09]

• Early morning, November 26, 1983: Security guard Michael Scouse arrives at the Brinks-Mat warehouse near Heathrow, where valuables await transfer.
• Security protocols are followed until Tony Black, a guard with underworld connections, lets in the gang.
• The robbers—masked, armed, and violent—force Scouse and fellow guards to cooperate under duress, drenching one in petrol to show their intent.
• Unexpected discovery: instead of the anticipated cash, they uncover over 6,800 gold bars—worth an equivalent of half a billion pounds today.
• The haul “set off a chain of events that would echo through Britain’s criminal underworld for decades.”

2. South London’s Criminal Underclass

[06:09–09:45]

• Wensley Clarkson colorfully describes the criminal culture:

  • "South London in the 60s, 70s and 80s was a hotbed of professional criminals... It was all about ducking and diving. And this mentality moved as the decades progressed into out and out professional criminal behavior." – Wensley Clarkson [06:09]

• Mickey McAvoy’s upbringing led him to a life of escalating crimes; the criminal underworld offered opportunity and a sense of belonging.

3. Planning the Heist

[09:45–12:01]

• McAvoy, through connections, learns that Tony Black can provide access to a warehouse rich with cash and gold—set for theft on November 26, 1983.
• The gang studies the routines; Black supplies detailed info and the alarm codes.
• The robbery’s execution is described in meticulous detail—timing, intimidation, the shock at the gold’s scale:
  • "When they left in the van from the warehouse, their van was scraping the pavement. They had so much gold in the back of it, they couldn't believe their luck." – Wensley Clarkson [11:35]

4. Investigation and Immediate Fallout

[12:01–18:07]

• Scotland Yard’s Flying Squad, famed for taking down London’s robbers, is assigned.
• The size of the reward (£2 million) leads to a frenzy.
• Tony Black quickly crumbles under interrogation, naming key gang members.
  • "He cracked very quickly... He was terrified, though he had to change his identity. He went into hiding." – Wensley Clarkson [15:36]

5. The Challenge of Disposing the Gold & Money Laundering

[17:39–23:31]

• The immense haul proves problematic. Unlike cash, gold bars are traceable by serial number and hallmark.

• The gang links up with professional fences and gold smugglers:

  • Kenneth Noye, a seasoned underworldsman specializing in precious metals.
  • John Palmer ("Goldfinger"), who runs a home smelting operation.

• Smelting and laundering network established:

  • Bars are recast, mixed with copper, relabeled, and sold into the market—even ending up with their original owners.
  • "Some of the money raised in the first year... was invested in what then became Canary Wharf..." – Wensley Clarkson [22:50]

• Notably, criminal proceeds help fuel London’s 1980s property boom.

6. The Spiral of Betrayal and Violence: The Brinks-Mat "Curse"

[23:47–35:23]

• Tony Black is sentenced to six years; warned that, "never again will your life be safe."

• McAvoy and Robinson, mastermind and lieutenant, face 25 years behind bars; but the gold largely remains missing.

• Police surveillance of Noye leads to tragedy: undercover Det. John Fordham is killed (stabbed by Noye during a stakeout). Noye later acquitted of murder on self-defense grounds, but later convicted for conspiracy and handling stolen bullion.

  • "The killing of John Fordham... made the police even more determined... but the inquiry itself went off in many tangents." – Wensley Clarkson [30:15]

• Distribution network splinters; infighting and paranoia grow as many chase pieces of the loot.

• Around this time, the proceeds start fueling the ecstasy (MDMA) drug boom—a switch from armed robbery to narcotics as the criminal underworld evolves.

  • "Ecstasy was a dream drug... you could mass-produce the pills in Holland, bring them over and sell them really quick." – Wensley Clarkson [33:50]

• The Adams crime family and others get drawn in; the chain of murders, betrayals, and overdoses grows.

  • "These tentacles from the Brinksmatt robbery were going so wide and far... people started dying. The whole thing was out of control." – Wensley Clarkson [34:39]

7. Notable Deaths and Aftermath

[35:23–46:01]

• Dozens are murdered in the years following—often gang members, witnesses, or those trying to profit from the loot.
• Johnson Matthey (the original owners) unwittingly buys back the recast gold.
• Proceeds continue to fuel both legitimate and criminal enterprises, especially by John Palmer (timeshare kingpin in Tenerife).
• The tragic case of 18-year-old Lea Betz underscores the devastation: she dies after taking an ecstasy pill sourced through these criminal networks.
• The “curse” narrative: By the 2000s, at least 28 people connected to the robbery are dead by violence, suspected murder, or overdose.

Notable Quote:
"I think every single criminal involved in that crime, except for possibly Kenneth Noy, wishes they'd never gone anywhere near it... they touched that gold, they got involved with that robbery, and 28 at least of them died. If that's not a curse, I don't know what is." – Wensley Clarkson [46:01]

8. Fate of the Main Players

[40:59–46:31]

• Kenneth Noye: After prison, murders again (road rage), flees, extradited, and sentenced to life.
• Mickey McAvoy: Released in 2000, lives quietly in Kent and Spain before passing away in 2023.
• John Palmer (Goldfinger): Builds a fortune on timeshares, murdered in 2015.
• Tony Black: Remains in hiding for life.
• Many others suffer violent or mysterious deaths; much of the bullion is still unaccounted for.

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Memorable Moments & Quotes

• On the criminal culture of South London:
  "Everyone ducked and dived. Your father would steal something off a ship in the docks in the Thames..."
  – Wensley Clarkson [06:09]

• On the gold-laden van’s departure:
  "Their van was scraping the pavement. They had so much gold in the back..."
  – Wensley Clarkson [11:35]

• On the impact and unwitting irony:
  "If you walk through Canary Wharf now, you're really looking at something that was built partly, without doubt, on the proceeds of the gold from the Brinksmatt robbery."
  – Wensley Clarkson [22:50]

• On the so-called "curse":
  "That gold created an industry within the underworld... people getting chunks of his gold... and they were starting to fall out. And meanwhile, a lot of the gold was being buried in different places around southern England..."
  – Wensley Clarkson [32:05]

• On regret and the cost to those involved:
  "I think every single criminal involved in that crime... wishes they'd never gone anywhere near it... 28 at least of them died. If that's not a curse, I don't know what is."
  – Wensley Clarkson [46:01]

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• Heist and Immediate Aftermath: [00:56–12:53]
• Criminal Underworld Background: [06:09–09:45]
• Planning and Inside Man: [09:45–12:01]
• Investigation and Manhunt: [12:01–18:07]
• Smelting and Laundering: [17:39–23:31]
• Police Infiltration & Violence: [24:02–35:23]
• Impact on London, Drug Trade, and Continued Fallout: [34:08–46:01]
• Final Reckonings & Reflections: [46:01–46:31]

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Closing Reflection

This episode masterfully chronicles the Brink’s-Mat Robbery's dizzying reach: from a cold London morning to an epidemic of greed, paranoia, and bloodshed that shaped the British underworld. The elusive fate of the gold, the spread of violence, and the true cost to the participants reinforce crime's self-destructive toll. As Wensley Clarkson puts it: “...they touched that gold, they got involved with that robbery, and 28 at least of them died. If that's not a curse, I don't know what is.” [46:01]

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Teaser for Next Episode:
A short history of the space shuttle Challenger disaster. [46:39–47:14]

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Transcript

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[Narrator]

it's 6:30 in the morning on November 26, 1983. On a trading estate near Heathrow Airport In West London, 37 year old security guard Michael Scouse arrives in his car outside an unprepossessing warehouse. Unit 7 is a two story building occupied by Brinks Matt, a leading security firm. It's a storage place for precious metals and currency in transit to or from the airport. Getting out of his car, Scouse walks past the big shutter door that allows vehicles access to the building and heads around the side to the pedestrian entrance. There he finds four other security guards fidgeting to keep warm, though he notes that one of them, Tony Black, is missing. As the supervisor and key holder, Scous is in charge of the complicated security protocols that start the shift, letting himself in first to disarm the night alarm, then returning to admit the others. Once everyone is safely inside, Scous heads past the vehicle loading bay and vault to the first floor. He is just getting started in the control room looking at today's tasks when he is summoned back downstairs by the doorbell. Waiting by the side door is Tony Black, looking pale and unkempt. He disappears immediately to use the toilet, then joins Scouse upstairs. But just then a commotion erupts in the staff room. As Scouse gets to his feet, a masked figure appears in the doorway holding a semi automatic pistol. He barks at him and Black to get on the floor. The pistol is pressed into Scous neck and a bag is pulled roughly over his head. After his wrists are wrenched behind him and secured with handcuffs, he is kicked a few times and cold liquid is sloshed on his crotch. Its strong familiar stench reaches his nostrils instantly. It's petrol. While his colleagues are handcuffed to radiators in the staff room, Scouse is forced to hand over the keys to the building, then hauled downstairs towards the main safe with his colleague Robin Risley, who has the other half of the combination. From beneath his hood, Scouse hears the gang pass through the series of doors and alarm systems until they're inside the caged vault. Temporarily relieved of his hood, Scouse punches his combination swiftly into the safe's keypad. But when it's Wriothesley's turn, the panic seems to have wiped the numbers from his mind. He tries again and again, but even the threatening rattle of a matchbox doesn't jog his memory. The robbers are sounding increasingly agitated. And now one of them comes over and tears off Scouses hood again. He wants to know what's in some barrels on the floor. But then his attention is drawn by a stack of gray cardboard boxes on two pallets. The masked man opens one up and calls the others over, astonished when he sees what it contains. 12 bars of pure gold. He opens another with the same result. And then another. A buzz of excitement passes through the vault. It's clear to Scouse that even though the robbers were expecting a big score, this is way more than they'd hoped for. What will become known as the Brinks Matt gang have come across perhaps £27 million worth of purpose. But the question is, what will they do with it now? The Brinks Mat robbery was one of the largest thefts in British history. The discovery of the record breaking haul in a West London warehouse in 1983 set off a chain of events that would echo through Britain's criminal underworld for decades. It helped shape the property boom of the 1980s, the drugs trade of the 1990s and left an enduring mark on UK crime and policing. But who were the men behind the so called robbery of the century? Why did the tentacles of the theft reach so far? And what is the curse of Brinks Matt? I'm John Hopkins from the Noiser Podcast Network. This is a short history of the Brinks Matt robbery. Around the world, cities have always had their criminal underclass. And London in the post war decades is no exception. Though the majority, rich and poor, make ends meet through honest means. For those young people brought up among the city's rogues and scoundrels, crime can seem to be the rule rather than the exception. True crime writer Wensley Clarkson is the author of the Curse of Brink's Matt. 25 years of murder and mayhem.

[Wensley Clarkson]

South London in the 60s, 70s and 80s was a hotbed of professional criminals. These were people who were brought up in a criminal atmosphere, who were brought up just after the war. There wasn't a lot of money around. Everyone ducked and dived. Your father would steal something off a ship in the docks in the Thames. Another relative might be a printer at the big newspapers who's fraudulently putting in claims for all sorts of extra time he's earned and ending up earning a fortune as a result. It was all about ducking and diving. And this mentality moved as the decades progressed into out and out professional criminal behavior.

[Narrator]

One of the boys growing up in South London at this time is named Mickey McAvoy. His Irish family settles in Camberwell and he grows up working as a porter at Covent Gardens fruit and vegetable market. At the weekend, he boxes in local clubs, frequents South London nightspots, and places bets on races between stolen cars. Before long, he and his friends are stealing the vehicles themselves. As crime rises, so too does the profile of the Flying Squad, Scotland Yard's elite unit that tackles armed robbery known as the Sweeney. But the police are not beyond corruption themselves, pocketing reward money meant for informants and fraternizing with criminals. By the early 1980s, McAvoy is living with his wife Jacqueline and children in South London and looks much like a normal family man to his neighbors. But while he works occasionally as a painter and decorator, as well as running a grocery shop, for a time, he has been climbing the criminal ladder too, moving from stealing cars to joining a team of robbers who work a patch covering much of Southeast England, leading a double life in more ways than one. He's also got a girlfriend, Kathleen Meacock, whom he calls Kathy. To keep himself fit for his nefarious line of business, he works out obsessively with weights and a punch bag at home. Like many South London criminals, he is known to the police that they have yet to pin anything substantial on him, Even natured most of the time, the occasional flare up of McAvoy's temper earns him the nickname Mad Mickey. Now approaching his 30s, he is restless in search of a big job, something that might mean he'll never have to work again. Perhaps through his alleged involvement in a drugs hall near Heathrow, he learns that there are warehouses in the vicinity which are used to store valuable items scheduled for flights out of the airport. McAvoy mentions this to an old friend of his, Brian Robinson. As luck would have it, Robinson's brother in law, Tony Black, happens to be employed as a security guard at the Brinks Mat warehouse near the airport. Managed by one of the best known security companies in the world, the Brinks Mat warehouse is relatively lightly guarded, with huge amounts of cash and gold stored overnight. To McAvoy, it sounds promising. Very promising indeed. McAvoy assembles the rest of his crew, six men in total. They start to watch the Brinks Mat warehouse closely, learning the exact movements of the security staff. Eventually, through Robinson, they approach Tony Black and make him an offer. Though not an experienced criminal, Black, who is struggling with debt, leaps at the chance to help the gang for a share of the proceeds.

[Wensley Clarkson]

Tony Black was a civilian. In criminal terms, he wasn't a criminal. But he happened to be the brother in law of Brian Robinson, one of the robbers.

[Narrator]

Black shares his knowledge about the alarm and security system at the warehouse and draws detailed diagrams of the layout. On November 25, 1983, he calls his brother in law from a phone box to let him know a big shipment has been delivered. Two tons of what he calls yellow gold. But they have to act fast. It'll only be there until the following lunchtime. The big job McAvoy has been waiting for is finally underway at 6:40 in the morning. The following day, Black arrives at work 10 minutes late. The rest of the team of security guards at the Brinksmatt warehouse are already there. Once he's in, Black doubles back to let in McAvoy and his gang, who are waiting outside in a blue van. An alarm sounds as they enter, but no one can hear it. Upstairs, masked and armed, they go straight for the two security guards they have been told will provide the combination to the safe. But what surprises them is the size of the haul they find there. They'd expected rich pickings, but nothing on this scale. Three tons of gold rather than two. A total of 60 boxes containing 6,800 gold bars worth over 26 million pounds. They also take over £100,000 in used banknotes, a pouch containing traveler's checks worth £200,000 and another containing diamonds. The vast hall, which could be worth as much as half a billion today, is the property of the London based Johnson Matthie Bankers Ltd. Bear in mind

[Wensley Clarkson]

this was almost comical that when they left in the van from the warehouse, their van was scraping the pavement. They had so much gold in the back of it, they couldn't believe their luck. The leader of the gang, Mickey McAvoy, ordered them not to disappear, not to go on the run, not to go abroad, but to continue to hang out in their haunts. They knew the police would hear about it, but the police would presume that meant they weren't involved.

[Narrator]

When the news breaks, the scale of the theft shocks the nation. The tabloids call it the robbery of the century. And the police waste no time in launching an investigation.

[Wensley Clarkson]

Scotland Yard's elite flying squad, who had become partly thanks to TV series and partly thanks to their extraordinary record of breaking down doors and breaking up gangs of robbers, were immediately put in charge of this case. And at the top of them, the guy in charge was Scotland Yard's Chief commander, Frank Hayter. He had an amazing background. He'd been involved with the Great Train Robbery and he gave the day to day duties to Detective Chief Superintendent Brian Boyce, who was a very tenacious ex army officer and probably, I say this now, one of the most honest policemen at Scotland Yard at the time.

[Narrator]

Within a day, the insurers for the Hall Lloyds of London offers a £2 million reward for information leading to the return of the stolen gold. And though the insurance claim is settled swiftly, it is devastating for Lloyds, who promptly launch their own investigation to trace the stolen property. McAvoy decides the robbers will have to sit on the loot for a while. But from the beginning, the gold proves to be almost as much trouble for the finders as it is for the insurers.

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[Narrator]

It doesn't take the police long to suss out the connection between the security guard Tony Black and his brother in law Brian Robinson, a known criminal. Black and the other security guards are called back to the warehouse to make a video reconstruction of the theft to aid the investigation. During the process, the guilty man struggles to hide his nerves when he is interrogated. The police quickly wear him down and he identifies three of the gang members, his brother in law McAvoy and a man called Tony White.

[Wensley Clarkson]

He cracked very quickly when the police rounded him up because he wasn't a criminal and it was obvious that this would happen. He was terrified, though he had to change his identity. He went into hiding.

[Narrator]

The police carefully watched the three named men in the hope that they will lead them to the gold. Despite the advice he has given to the others, McAvoy starts to be less cautious, even leaving his Dulwich council house and moving into a mansion on the border of the county of Kent. Soon, his girlfriend Kathy, for whom he has by now left his wife, also benefits from a big new house. McAvoy even buys two Rottweilers and names them Brinks and Matt. Nevertheless, the police delay the arrest of the three men named by Black, not only because they have no evidence beyond his confession, but also because they are holding onto the hope that they'll be led to the treasure. Finally, 11 days after the robbery, McAvoy, White and Robinson are taken in for questioning at separate police stations. Despite providing alibis and keeping to the criminal code of silence. A few weeks later, they are brought to Feltham Magistrates Court. There, though the hall is nowhere to be found, they are remanded on the charge of stealing the gold and other valuables from the Brinksmatt warehouse. While the rest of the gang sits tight, the wheels are already in motion to turn 6,800 bars of gold into cold, hard cash. Though they're still free, the remaining members of the gang have a problem. Heavy gold bars are more or less Impossible to offload. Unnoticed gold ingots tend to carry their own individually designed hallmarks and serial numbers, which need to be removed. And the high quality of the hall presents its own challenge. Failure to disguise it will arouse the suspicion of legitimate traders who might question the sudden appearance of a huge quantity of pure gold, Especially with the newspapers filled with reports of the robbery of the center.

[Wensley Clarkson]

So, having stolen, almost by accident, £27 million worth of gold, which back in 1983 was a lot of gold, and today, by the way, would be worth at least half a billion pounds, probably more, because gold has gone up so much in price. But the problem for the robbers, not only did they have the police on their tail within days, but what the hell do they do with all this gold? They've got to turn it into money, and they need professionals to do that.

[Narrator]

The gold needs to be melted down and mixed with other metals, such as copper, to disguise its purity before being recast and fed back into the market without drawing attention. Once it's sold, the proceeds themselves must be laundered to disguise the origin of the profits. The entire process will create a vast chain of work for smelters, middlemen known as fences and money launderers and other criminals. But first things first. The gang needs someone who knows his way around gold and how to smelt it. Enter Kenneth Noy, a professional criminal based in Kent who has taught himself everything there is to know about the precious metal.

[Wensley Clarkson]

Kenneth Noy was a professional criminal down to his toenails. He made a reputation for himself before this as someone who could make money out of just about anything. And more importantly, he knew the people to dispose of the gold with. And he brought in a gold smelter called John Palmer, who was also a criminal from the west of England. These two ended up being the pivotal characters in the Brinksback job, even though they never went anywhere near that warehouse.

[Narrator]

Based in Bristol, John Palmer has a reputation as a major fence. His skill at handling precious metals has even earned him the nickname Goldfinger. Like Noye, he protects his interests by cultivating relationships with contacts on the local police force. In partnership with a man named Garth Chappell, Palmer has a number of legitimate looking businesses to cover up his criminal activities, including a precious metals and jewelry business. Since 1979, Palmer has been regularly using a private smelter installed in his own garden. There he smelts scrap and stolen jewelry to sell it back into the legitimate gold market or through one of his three jewelry shops. He and Noy now strike a deal with the gang that they'll take a 25% fee on everything they smelt. Soon, divided up between trusted associates, the Brinks mat gold begins to be gradually dispersed. Little by little, the 6,800 gold bars are moved around, smelted, mixed with copper, recast and sold to dealers. Neighbors of Kenneth Noye's elderly parents start to notice the regularity with which Noye unloads what he calls heavy batteries from his Ford pickup into his parents garage. And the police start pulling at other threads, including a tip off From Hatton Garden, London's jewelry district. A man in a gold Rolls Royce, they're told, has been making inquiries about buying an industrial smelter. When the man, Mickey Lawson, returns to pick up the smelter, the flying squad follow him all the way to Kent and specifically to the door of his best friend, Kenneth.

[Wensley Clarkson]

No, it's incredible. He couldn't make it up. And so, as a result, Scotland Yard, partly with the assistance of the Kent police, mounted what they call sophisticated surveillance operation. It included cameras in boxes by trees at the entrance to Kenneth Noy's isolated house in the Kent countryside.

[Narrator]

But the police can't prove anything immediately. And in the months after the robbery, in spite of the surveillance, Noye, Palmer and their associates are making money from their smelting operation. After being blended and recast, the gold is taken in small consignments to the Assay office in Sheffield, one of the few places with the power to hallmark gold, silver and platinum. Once the gold's purity levels have been determined, the Sheffield office gives it a hallmark meaning it can be sold on the legitimate market. As a cover story for this sudden influx of gold, Chappell takes out an advertisement in a local paper, a call to buy unwanted jewelry. One of the biggest buyers of this new influx of the precious metal is Johnson Matthey, the original owners of the Brinks Mat loot. The money starts to pour in in just four months after the robbery. One bank handles transactions of more than 10 million pounds in grubby plastic bags, no questions asked. But then the money has to be carefully laundered and made to appear as if it comes from a legitimate source, such as property investments.

[Wensley Clarkson]

There's absolutely no doubt that some of the money raised in the first year, I would say, after the robbery was invested in what, what then became Canary Wharf and certain other areas on the side of the Thames, near to Canary Wharf. And the reason that that happened is actually some of these very astute criminals and their associates already owned rundown warehouses, some of them, and they actually sold them on to other criminals who then sold them to developers. It was a great way of laundering the money and making a big profit at the same time. And actually, if you walk through Canary Wharf now, you're really looking at something that was built partly without doubt, on the proceeds of the gold from the Brinksmatt robbery.

[Narrator]

Meanwhile, Brinksmatt inside man, the security guard, Tony Black, is sentenced to six years imprisonment for his role in the robbery. But the sentence is accompanied by a grim warning from the judge who tells him, never again will your life be safe.

[Wensley Clarkson]

I believe he's still in hiding to this day. And he was seen, as they used to say in southeast London, they probably still do a grass. He grassed up his family member and that was sacrosanct.

[Narrator]

Within a year of the robbery, McAvoy, White and Robinson are brought before the same judge at London's Old Bailey to charges of conspiring to commit robbery and of robbery itself. White is cleared, but McAvoy and Robinson are found guilty and sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment. But although two of the gang are behind bars, the police have yet to locate what's left of the stolen goods. Now, in January 1985, surveillance suggests that some of the gold is being moved in and out of Noye's property. What the police need to know is how it is. January 26, 1985, around 6:15 in the evening and already bitterly cold in the dark Kent countryside. DC John Fordham and his partner, DC Neil Murphy, have just started the overnight surveillance shift of Kenneth Noye's Hollywood cottage, a large mock Tudor house set in 20 acres of grounds and woodland. They're still settling into their usual positions when a pair of headlights slices through the gloom. Coming up the quiet country lane and turning towards the property. A quick check confirms that the car is that of Noyes associate Brian Reader, a person of interest in the Brinks Matt robbery. The two detectives are on their feet in seconds. This could be it, the key piece of evidence they've been looking for. Quickly they leave the hideout and head through the bushes towards the road. Both are wearing camouflage clothing and balaclavas, but though they are carrying yeast tablets to pacify noise Rottweilers, they are unarmed, as is standard procedure for operations of this kind. They are, however, equipped with discreet radio sets with which they can communicate with the backup team nearby. 37 year old Murphy follows his senior partner, Fordham. Known as Gentleman John for his old fashioned good manners, Fordham is an impressive mentor with four commendations for bravery under his belt. With Reader's car By now out of sight up the driveway, the two officers pass over the low wall and along the perimeter fence, making for the COVID of the trees and shrubbery outside the barn. But just as Fordham drops to his knee beside a tree, waiting for Murphy to move ahead, one of Noye's Rottweilers appears out of nowhere. Startled, Murphy's hand flies to his pocket for the yeast tablets. But the dog, now joined by a friend, isn't interested, though neither animal attacks. For now, the alarm has been well and truly raised. As their barking intensifies, Murphy hears the crackle of his colleague's radio as he reports this latest development of the officers waiting nearby. Gesturing to Fordham, Murphy begins to withdraw carefully from the dogs, presuming his partner will follow. But when he reaches the shrubbery, he finds he is alone. He quickly climbs a tree to help him locate his partner. And once he's up there, he sees something that makes his heart sink. A figure of a man in the garden, flanked by the dogs and holding a torch. It's Kenneth Noye. Suddenly, the beam of light swings towards Murphy in his tree. He drops from the branches to the other side of the boundary fence and runs out of sight. But now he can hear raised voices and the sounds of a tussle. A woman starts to scream. Murphy pushes through some bushes for a clearer view. And for a moment, what he sees doesn't make sense. Two men and a woman are standing over something on the grass, something one of the men is viciously kicking. But when Murphy realizes the shape on the ground isn't moving, he understands it completely. The backup police team and paramedics are swift to arrive on the scene at Hollywood Cottage, where it transpires that Fordham has been stabbed by Noye along with his wife. Noye is arrested, and while their associate, Brian Reader, makes off into the night, the police soon catch up with him, too. Fordham is rushed to hospital, but at 8:20pm he is pronounced dead. A police search of Hollywood cottage unearths 11 gold bars worth at least £100,000. Other finds at the house include copper coins of the kind used in the re smelting of gold, a child's drawing pad with a sketch of a gold bar, and a 1985 edition of the Guinness Book of Records with a circle drawn around the entry, naming Brink's Mat as Britain's largest robbery. Noye, however, has no intention of rolling over.

[Wensley Clarkson]

At one stage, Noye, after he'd been arrested, even tried to attempt to bribe Brian Boyce, the chief investigator. He refused it point blank. He Even didn't even react to a Masonic handshake that Noye tried. Because Noye had infiltrated the Masons because they had a lot of police members and he was such a good mover and shaker, he'd actually become a member of the Masons.

[Narrator]

Despite Noye's best efforts, he and Brian Reeder are soon charged with Fordham's murder. At the request of the defense, charges relating to the handling of the gold and associated tax fraud are deferred to a later date. Noye's arrest, along with that of others linked to the smelting, encouraged the insurers in their decision to sue anyone involved in the crime in the civil courts for compensation. The murder trial at the Old Bailey takes place in November 1985, but Noye has splashed out on one of the best defense counsels in the country. He argues that the appearance of a masked man on the defendant's property had struck terror in his client, who acted in self defense. It is an argument that ultimately the jury accepts.

[Wensley Clarkson]

The killing of John Fordham, the undercover policeman, by Kenneth Noy made the police even more determined. But in some ways now, looking back at it and even some of the police involved, admittedly they sort of lost focus with what they were really doing because they were so emotionally involved now because they were so upset by the death of a fellow officer. And not only did they fail to win a prosecution against Noye for supposedly murdering John Fulden, but the inquiry itself went off in many tangents.

[Narrator]

Noye returns to the old Bailey in May 1986 alongside Brian Reader and Garth Chappell, who are charged with handling the stolen gold bullion and conspiracy to evade vat. In this second trial, Noye is found guilty, lashing out at the jury as he is led away. He is later sentenced to 14 years of imprisonment. Even without Noye, the smelting and distribution of the gold continues. John Palmer, whose house is raided at the same time as Noyes, evades arrest with a timely trip to Tenerife. He uses his jewelry business to explain the smelter that's discovered on his property. When the long arm of the law finally catches up with him a couple of years later, he admits to smelting gold bars, but denies that he knew they were stolen. He is acquitted in court, but his game of cat and mouse with the flying squad is far from over. Despite the police searches at the homes of Noye and Palmer, a huge amount of the loot is still unaccounted for. And by this stage, it's impossible for either the law or Mickey McAvoy himself to keep track of what is going on.

[Wensley Clarkson]

That gold created an industry within the underworld. There were dozens of people trying to get a piece of the action, and McAvoy was trying to control it from prison, getting more and more angry when he heard about people getting chunks of his gold, because that's how he looked at it. It was his gold and all these other characters were getting involved and they were starting to fall out. And meanwhile, a lot of the gold was being buried in different places around southern England because they didn't want it all in one place.

[Narrator]

McAvoy knows that the first man out of jail and back to the remaining gold will have the advantage. In 1987, having by now officially divorced his first wife, he marries his former mistress, Kathy, while still incarcerated, sending a clear message that he is still looking ahead and planning for his future on the outside. Also keeping an eye on his assets from behind bars is Noy, who sells Hollywood Cottage for more than £1 million and encourages his wife Brenda to buy a £300,000 house in her name. Nearby. Though the bank accounts of many of the Brinksmatt criminals have been frozen, they are given some free rein in the hope that their activities might lead the police to the remaining gold. The insurance agents keep a close eye on the family and friends of the gang and even start negotiating with the criminals, accountants and lawyers about making a deal. In prison, Noye befriends one of the jail's most feared inmates, a bodybuilder called Pat Tate. As well as becoming Noye's personal minder, Tate convinces him to consider investing some of his Brink's Mat profits in a new designer drug called Ecstasy.

[Wensley Clarkson]

Then we get to the end of the 80s and ecstasy comes on the scene. Now, Ecstasy was a dream drug for because it was in pill form, you could mass produce the pills in Holland, bring them over and sell them really quick. And they were so easy to deal with at clubs and everything.

[Narrator]

By the late 1980s, with security vans increasingly monitored with radar by the police, organized crime starts to shift away from armed robbery and into the lucrative drugs market. And it is Brinks Nat Cash that helps to flood Britain with ecstasy. Meanwhile, tensions within the gang persist. With McAvoy and Noye still behind bars, control of the remaining proceeds falls to intermediaries on the outside.

[Wensley Clarkson]

These tentacles from the Brinksmatt robbery were going so wide and far, they even involved the most notorious crime family in Britain, the Adams family, who were also connected to Noy and Palmer and sort of trying to run the Smelting operation. They were a notorious lot from North London. They'd never had anything to do with these other robbers. But once they got involved, it got even more complicated and people started dying. The whole thing was out of control. And the police were quite bemused by it because they got the three main robbers, they put them away, they put Noye away finally. But they knew they weren't in control. There were too many Deaths.

[Narrator]

In the 1990s. A number of people involved in the smelting, laundering and other offshoots of the robbery start to lose their lives. These include one man who was also once involved in the Great Train Robbery, who was murdered by his pool in Spain. A Hatton Garden jeweler shot on his doorstep. And a property investor gunned down in broad daylight on a busy London street. In reference to the chain of violence, betrayals and deaths that seem to follow in the robbery's wake, journalists and police begin to talk of the curse of Brinksmatt. And in the decades after the robbery, the so called curse will claim many more lives. In 1994, Kenneth Noye is released from prison after serving eight years of his 14 year sentence. Soon after, he spends some time in Cyprus, where he considers investing in a multiple owner holiday property system called timeshare, something already exploited by his old pal, John Palmer.

[Wensley Clarkson]

John Palmer the smelter, who was Kenneth Noye's partner in crime. His story is fascinating because what he did with the money he made from it is he did what every criminal wants to do. He put it into a legit business and made trillions. That legit business, if he called it, was timeshare on the island of Tenerife, and he ended up making more money than anyone else involved in this crime. By far, Timeshare itself is a pretty dodgy business, but a lot of criminals were very jealous of him.

[Narrator]

Though Palmer presents himself as a legitimate businessman, tying with the Queen on the Sunday Times rich list, much of his wealth comes from swindling holidaymakers. All the while, the insurers continue to press for the recovery of the rest of the gold. One person of whom they are particularly dogged in their pursuit is McAvoy. In January 1995, the High Court orders him to make a payment of more than 27 million pounds to the insurers. But McEvoy, who is still in prison, claims he no longer knows where the gold is and doesn't have the cash. Six months later, with pressure mounting, the insurers have more success, with Noye striking a deal to recover around 3 million pounds of the proceeds. He agrees to the settlement on the condition that the new house in Brenda's name is left untouched, because, after all, Noye has other investments. By now, his former cellmate, Pat Tate, has been released from prison and is running the main ecstasy supply route to Essex, with financial backing from Noye and other Brinksmatt gang members. By the mid-1990s, the ecstasy business in the UK is worth more than £500 million a year. But for many, it comes at an unimaginable cost. In November 1995, an 18 year old called Lea Betz takes an Ecstasy tablet which has been acquired through Pat Tate's supply chain. Conscious of the risks of dehydration, she also consumes 7 liters of water in 90 minutes. Four hours after taking the pill, Betz collapses in her bathroom and is rushed to hospital. Her parents, a nurse and a retired Metropolitan Police officer release a photograph of their teenage daughter on a life support machine. Four days after taking the pill, she dies. A toxicologist at the subsequent inquest attributes the tragic outcome to a combination of the water and the drug. But her story becomes a powerful warning of the dangers of ecstasy. But it's not only innocent victims who lose their lives in the trade of the drug. On an icy day in December 1995, two men on their way to a fishing lake in Essex discover a parked Range Rover containing three bodies, including that of Pat Tate. It's believed the victims were lured by other criminals with Brinks mat connections under the pretext of scouting a landing site for a plane smuggling a consignment of drugs. Rumors that Tate had been cooperating with the police remain unconfirmed. But his violent death fuels further talk of the curse of Brinksmatt. By now, around half of the gold has been smelted and recast. Much of it has found its way back into the legitimate gold market, including the reserves of its original owners. Johnson Matthey. Though Kenneth Noy has been out of prison for just two years, in May 1996, he loses his temper in a road rage incident on the M25 motorway and stabs 21 year old Stephen Cameron to death in front of his young fiance. Noye flees the country soon after, escaping to Spain on John Palmer's private jet. But he's arrested in 1998 after the grieving witnesses flown out to identify him. His trial takes place in 2000 and he is found guilty by the jury of murder and given a sentence of life imprisonment in April that year. Stories related to Brinks Matt never seem to truly go away.

[Wensley Clarkson]

So all the time people like Noy keep coming back into the news. So it sort of means it's still reverberating, it's still.

[Narrator]

In prison. Mickey McAvoy is relieved to hear of Noye's arrest. The way McAvoy sees it, Noye was a middleman who went nowhere near the Brinksmatt warehouse and has caused more than enough trouble and publicity. And now, after almost two decades behind bars, McAvoy himself can start to look forward to life on the outside. It is a cool day in spring 2000. 48 year old Mickey McAvoy wakes in his prison cell early before the bell. For a while he just lies there listening. There is the rattle of keys along the corridor and the footsteps of the guards. The familiar sounds of another day beginning much like all the others. But for McAvoy, this one is different. It is his release day, his time to rejoin the world outside. But when the bell finally sounds, he sits up the mattress dipping beneath his weight with his belongings in a small holdall. He reaches for his breakfast pack and opens the small box of cereal, pouring on milk and starting to eat. Outside his cell the prison grows busier as the morning settles into its usual rhythm. After finishing his breakfast he dresses and by the time the officer comes for him he is ready. He's already said his goodbyes. Picking up his hold all, he takes one final glance at his cell and follows the guard through door after door until they reach a quieter part of the prison. The discharge office is a low functional room with fluorescent lighting and a counter where a tired looking woman sits typing something on a screen. At last she reaches bin and slides a clear plastic bag towards McAvoy. Inside he finds his wallet and watch. Objects that feel as if they've come from another lifetime. McAvoy signs where he is told to. After a final check of the paperwork, he's shown to a small holding area where there is nothing to do but wait it out. But after 16 years inside, he's become good at waiting. Eventually another officer appears and McAvoy picks up his hold. All they pass through more doors, more locks, until they come to the gate leading outside. It swings open and he steps into the fresh air. Finally, 17 years after he set in motion the chain of events that put him here, he is free. He exhales when he sees there's no crowd, no pressure, just a car with its engine idling ready to take him away. He raises a hand in greeting. 13 years is a long time to wait for a honeymoon. But Kathy is waiting for him. And so is the rest of his life. After his release from prison, Mickey McAvoy lives quietly, splitting his time between luxurious properties in Spain and Kent with his wife. But the crime for which he was convicted continues to claim victims. In October 2000, a man called Alan Decibrol is gunned down in Ashford, Kent, just months after giving evidence against Kenneth Noye at the Old Bailey. Noye, still behind bars, is suspected of being involved. But DeCobral's death remains one of the unsolved Brinksmatt cases. The following year, another Brinksmatt associate is killed. Brian Perry, who spent nine years in jail for handling the gold, is shot at close range by a professional hitman near his minicab office. After a stint in prison for timeshare fraud, John Palmer is living out his days quietly in Brentwood, Essex, when he meets a similar fate. While gardening at home in 2015, he is shot six times in the chest. His killer remains unidentified to this day, though around 30 people lose their lives to the curse of Brinks Matt. Kenneth Noye is released from prison in 2019 and heads back to Kent. Mickey McAvoy continues to keep a low profile, but dies in 2023 from an overdose of sleeping pills at the age of 71, heartbroken after the death of his wife Kathy. More than 40 years have now passed since that cold morning at a nondescript warehouse in West London. But despite the arrests and some recoveries of the gold, much of what was stolen has never been found. The Brinksmat robbery remains legendary, not just for the stolen wealth, but for its long, bloody ripple effects. An epic story driven by violence, greed and betrayal, with a moral sting in its tail that the past will almost always catch up with you.

[Wensley Clarkson]

I think every single criminal involved in that crime, except for possibly Kenneth Noy, wishes they'd never gone anywhere near it. In terms of it literally being a curse, I can't tell you. But as far as what has happened is they touched that gold, they got involved with that robbery, and 28 at least of them died. If that's not a curse, I don't know what is.

[Narrator]

Next time on Short History of We'll bring you a short history of the space shuttle Challenger disaster.

[Space Exploration Enthusiast]

Space exploration kindles in us the kind of sense of wonder and curiosity and creativity that I think is generally good for a society. Human beings are curious animals. It's one of the best qualities that we have. We want to know. And when I used to look in the telescope as a small boy and see the vastness of space and the rings of Saturn. I was almost in awe, frightened almost at just the incredible vastness and bigness and how much was left to be discovered. I think we should keep on doing that. It's one priority of many, and it doesn't necessarily mean that we have to engage in a series of stunts.

[Narrator]

That's Next time. You can listen to the next two episodes of Short History of Right now without waiting and without adverts by subscribing to Noiser Plus. Just hit the link in the episode description or head to www.noiser.comsubscriptions to unlock more episodes today.