Allowing every detail of their plan to be broadcasted over the airwaves seems another mistake uncharacteristic of a professional state intelligence operation. [65][68] Campbell describes the story as "cheerful nonsense". [32][g], The disagreement between the lookout and gang continued for a while, and the lookout said "Money may be your God, but it's not mine, and I'm fucking off! and no weapons, a team of intruders managed to steal nearly 3 million (estimated at $33.8 million today) in. The two were arrested and 32,000 of notes were seized. The problem is they should never have gotten away with a penny. "'Negligence' claims on bank over 3m raid". John "The Face" Goodwin, Tony Gavin and another man known as Little Legs. [17] The gang then used the thermic lance in an attempt to cut through the floor;[27] when this failed they drilled holes in the underside of the vault floor and packed them with gelignite. Carly Read, a journalist for Express, detailed the . Was the target something so sensitive it could be used to blackmail one of the powerful clients? The FBI is seeking information regarding a bank robbery that took place today, October 17, 2022, at the TD Bank branch at 401 South State Road 7, Hollywood, Florida. [43] The following day he adjourned the case; no reason was given and no date to resume proceedings was set. "Judge will visit scene of bank raid today". They found the vault secure; they were unable to open the vault to check as it was time locked. After that, news of the raid virtually vanished from the UK media. Have a youtube channel or website similar? Could it be there is something so explosive in those files that they might still be embarrassing decades after everyone involved is dead? It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. Links. He noticed a single diamond that could easily have been stolen, which he estimated was worth between 3,000 and 4,000 at the 1971 price. Its believed other criminals- possibly including a female- were also involved but never caught. The role of British intelligence in such a scenario could take two forms. Speculation about who was really behind the raid has lead to some sensational theories. Wolfe was quickly apprehended and the other gang members, all known associates of Wolfe, soon followed. Los Angeles-Riverside-Orange County (CA) (10) San Diego (CA) (4) Jordan Bowen reports. The Bank Job claims to be more than just speculation. Road, East Dulwich who, using his own name, had leased the shop to the gang. It is not contested that a such a request was made to the press regarding their reporting of the Baker Street robbery. On the 1971 Baker Street Robbery. [14], The gang began their entry into the vault on Friday 10 September, after the bank closed for the weekend. Theres no trace of them on the internet. The robbers had rented the leather goods shop Le Sac, two doors north of the bank, and tunnelled a distance of approximately 50 feet (15 m) passing under the intervening Chicken Inn restaurant. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. By 1971, CB Radio was already massive in America and beginning to take off in the UK, despite still been technically outlawed. Home of the Daily and Sunday Express. (bkz: baker street) edit: ukte. The robbery was known about for almost two days before news of it was broken on the morning of Monday 13th September. None of it was recovered. [14], Up to 120 detectives worked on the case,[14] organised into four teams: one examining the scene, one contacting the known safety box owners, one covering the co-ordination from the control centre and one team dealing with all external enquiries. . The accused's attorney persuades Reggie to take the case. Anthony is related to Melinda Renee Garner . Real name Michael De Freteis, Michael X was a London gangster, drug dealer and slum landlord in the 1960s and 70s. Kevin Swain (portrayed by Stephen Campbell Moore) - Based on Anthony Gavin; Former army physical training instructor and photographer from . All of those apprehended- including the store owner, Benjamin Wolfe- were found guilty of the raid in January 1973 and handed sentences ranging from eight to twelve years. The raid made the headlines in September 1971 and was dubbed the Walkie-Talkie Bank Job due to a tip-off from a member of the public who heard robbers communicating with one another using the devices. The story involves murder, corruption and a sex scandal with links to the Royal Family a story in which the thieves were the most innocent people involved. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. "naused" is slang for to ruin or mess up. Your email address will not be published. [7], Although many of the records relating to the burglary at the bank were released by The National Archives in 2013,[78] approximately 800 pages of information remain closed; they will be available for viewing in January 2071. They used athermal lanceto try to break into the vault but ultimately had to use explosives. Even today, paedophile scandals are rumbling on at the BBC and Westminister. In 1970 Anthony Gavin, a 38-year-old photographer from North London, began planning the burglary of the branch of Lloyds Bank at 187 Baker Street, in the Marylebone district of the City of Westminster, London. London True Crime: The Baker Street Robbery. Discover the truth behind unexplained ancient mysteries, UFO mysteries, secret locations and paranormal events. Anthony Gavin, Thomas Stevens, Reginald Tucker and an unidentified accomplice rented a leather shop called Le Sac, which was two shops over from the Lloyd's Bank located at the corner of Baker St. and Marylebone Rd. The Baker Street Robbery . [55][k], The two Gangjis were remanded in custody until 16 November, when bail was set at 75,000. The Baker Street robbery is the story of an audacious bank robbery which occurred on (or rather below) Baker Street in the autumn of 1971. . It seems unthinkable that MI5 would be behind such a plan unless the gang agreed to deliberately take the fall for them. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Details of MEPO 26/418; Reference: MEPO 26/418 Description: Benjamin WOLFE, Thomas Gray STEPHEN, Reginald Samuel TUCKER and Anthony GAVIN: convicted of aggravated burglary arising from the theft of cash and jewellery worth 1,250,000 from Lloyds Bank, 185 Baker Street, Marylebone, London NW1, between 10 and 13 September 1971. Anthony Gavin, Thomas Stephens and Reginald Tucker were jailed for their part in the robbery. The Baker Street robbery was a robbery of the safe deposit boxes at a branch of Lloyds Bank on the corner of Baker Street and Marylebone Road, London, on the night of 11 September 1971. . baker street robbery. One of the men appeared to be inside the unidentified branch whilst the other was perched on the roof acting as a lookout. Browse Locations. Alchetron. The most popular idea is that the gang possibly obtained compromising photographs of Princess Margaret cavorting with infamous London gangster turned actor, John Bindon. "Why 'true crime' is a hard job to pull off". The Baker Street robbery was the burglary of the safe deposit boxes at the Baker Street, London branch of Lloyds Bank, on the night of 11 September 1971.The . A few months later, the commune he started there burnt down in mysterious circumstances. The robbery required a hitherto unseen level of patience and expertise from the thieves, utilizing then hard to obtain radio communications equipment, explosives, expensive digging machinery and even a thermal lance. Wolfe had signed the lease on the shop used by the robbers. Login Free Trial. The film is about the Baker Street Bank Robbery that occurred at the Lloyds Bank on the intersection of Baker Street and Marylebone Road in the West End of London on the night of the 11th September 1971. . "Men on notes charge get bail of 75,000". Nobody was ever arrested. [3][j], After the end of the investigation Scotland Yard considered prosecuting Rowlands under the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1967 for listening to unlicensed transmissions, but no charges were laid against him. [49][n] The case opened in the High Court in 1977, by which time there were 138 plaintiffs seeking damages of 660,000. The unsolved mystery of the Van Meter Visitor a winged creature! 50% OFF TODAY WITH CODE AVERY50. Gavin has over two decades of experience in venture capital and public . Bank practice of the time was for staff to leave customers in private while visiting the vault. The Bank Manager: See also. Naturally there was much interest in the case. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. [74] The advertising for the film played up many of the rumours, both fuelling and reinforcing them:[75], [the gang] looted safe deposit boxes of cash and jewellery worth millions and millions of pounds. [23] Gavin dug until he reached the walls of the Chicken Inn's basement, then dug down and continued under the building, using their basement floor as the roof of the tunnel. With the gang just a few feet away behind the 15-inch thick door of the vault, the bank was dismissed as the location of the robbery because there were no signs of a break-in. As the night wore on, the two men continued to crop up on the air. The Baker Street Robbery is one of the most notorious and costly bank robberies in Britain's history. [67] Another rumour is that one of the safety deposit boxes contained compromising photographs of Princess Margaret and the actor and criminal John Bindon. That informant was actually Evening Standard journalist George McIndoe, who claimed to have learnt about the salacious photographs after getting to know two members of the Baker Street gang in the 1970s. The owner of Le Sac was 66 year old Benjamin Wolfe of Dovercourt Road, East Dulwich who, using his own name, had leased the shop to the gang. [52] Police announced that they were searching for four men and a woman. Essentially a band of criminals would rent a shop, dig a tunnel 40ft (12m) long underneath a . "[51], Initially a news blackout was imposed on the radio messages to avoid letting the burglars know their conversations had been overheard by the police, but this was lifted by Monday 13 September. The Timesnewspaper was still reporting about the case over two months later. They didn't succeed. He also claims that police threatened to prosecute him for listening to an unlicensed radio station. Wimpole Street, from where Robert Rowlands intercepted an unusual broadcast. What if the real target of the robbers was not loot but something even more valuable? Princess Margaret's whirlwind romance with a London gangster was previously linked to a bank robbery in Baker Street. Another time Bindon performed his famous party trick involving hanging 5 half pint glasses from his penis, much to Margaret's delight. The Baker Street Robbery took place in September 1971, when a small gang tunneled their way 40 feet under Lloyds Bank in Baker Street, breaking through the reinforced concrete floor with a thermal lance. With limited resources and the need to ask the permission of each bank to search it, they failed to stop the gang in time. Fearful of a major national scandal if they are made public, MI5 orders the raid to retrieve them. The software development came to an end and since 2007, I lost touch with Tony. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. Sentencing March 7. One curious piece of circumstantial evidence does exist, however. Required fields are marked *. [14], In March 1973, 64 of those whose safety deposit boxes had been broken into sued Lloyds for 500,000. blatta hiberna. The story, so it goes, begins some 4,200 miles away on the island of Mustique in St Vincent, where the princess hosted the most outrageous parties at the unlikely royal residence. 12/23/18 AT 1:15 AM. Answer (1 of 2): The answer seems to be that it it's in free variation but when you go to Royal Mail and type in a postcode, and it gives you the list of addresses associated with that postcode the flat-numbers are given with capital letters. Whos the mystery woman in charge? It was recently reported that one of those who evaded capture was professional crook, Brian Reader who masterminded the more recent- and strikingly similar- Hatton Garden Heist. In September of 1971 a branch of Lloyds Bank in Baker Street, London was robbed. Bereft of a sense of purpose, the young Princess would increasingly lose herself in a life of hedonism and become notorious for her drinking, partying and a succession of lovers. Whatever the case, she had already compromised herself; a photograph of Margaret with the then wanted criminal Bindon was widely circulated in Fleet Street, although not actually printed by the press until many years later. In recent years, the tabloid Daily Mirror has revealed that they and other major newspapers of the time were approached by senior government officials and asked to drop the story. [17] What they did not know was that there was an old well under where the tunnel ended,[25] and the pressure of the jack pushed the bottom of their tunnel down into the well, rather than raising the vault's floor upwards. During this period, it is thought a D-notice was in effect to prevent any reporting possibly tipping the criminals off. Police found the members of the gang soon after the break in; one of the burglars, Benjamin Wolfe, had signed the lease for Le Sac in his own name and informers provided information that led to Gavin. "Self preservation societies: a brief history of heists". The value of the property stolen is unknown, but is likely to have been between 1.25and 3million;[a] only 231,000 was recovered by the police.[b]. It has been claimed the Queens sister was involved in a whirlwind romance with a London gangster, which subsequently led to the infamous 1971 Lloyds bank robbery in Baker Street. [30] He heard comments over the radio that made him think a local cigarette shop was being burgled. [41][42][43][h][i] Because of the way the gang communicated the burglary was soon nicknamed "the walkie-talkie job". With no alarms sounding. Was Hatton Garden insured? Top 3 Results for Anthony Gavin. When someone working on an MI5 covert operation leases out a shop as a front for their illegal activities, they generally don't do it in their own name, allowing for their swift capture by the police. is one of the most notorious bank heists in British history. The site features a collection of unexplained, strange and odd mysteries. Four of the men, aged 67, 74, 58 and 48, were arrested in Enfield; one, aged 59, was arrested in east London; and two other men, aged 76 and 50, were arrested in Dartford. On one occasion she photographed several of her male friends naked on the beach. The Baker Street Robbery. [14][40] They visited the Baker Street branch of Lloyds at 3:30pm on 12 September. Eventually persuaded, they set out on a frantic search of hundreds of London's banks in an attempt to thwart the raid. The . . The Baker Street Robbery: Directed by Neil Alderton, Milly Ali, Johnny Perk. Gavin and his colleagues rented Le Sac, a leather goods shop two doors from the bank, and tunnelled during weekends. [13][14] Another of Gavin's friends, Mickey "Skinny" Gervaise, a burglar-alarm expert, was brought on board, as were two men who have never been identified: "Little Legs" and "TH". But like the often very public behaviour of paedophiles such as Lord Boothby and MP Tom Driberg, anything that could damage the establishment was already not reported by mutual agreement. The value of the goods that were stolen during the heist is still unknown as the police only managed to retrieve a small sum. Firstly the culprits were attempting to tunnel their way inside a safety deposit vault, and secondly that that vault was located within a mile of the flat of CB radio ham Robert Rowlands. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. The images had been put in the bank by a mysterious man known only as Michael X, The Queen has THIS key attribute that Prince Charles lacks, Moment Prince Harry put Sky Royal reporter on the spot over 'virgins', Mr Bindon died of an Aids-related illness in 1993, How Meghan Markle is a little more unexpected and youthful than Kate. [31] At around midnight he recorded dialogue between the gang inside the shop and the nearby lookout about their need to take a break: First voice: Right, well listen carefully. Some of the rumours inspired the story for the 2008 film The Bank Job. I am a software developer and Tony was one of my program installers. At around 11:00pm on Saturday 11 September Robert Rowlands, an amateur radio enthusiast living in a flat in Wimpole Street, half a mile (800m) away from the Lloyds branch, picked up the walkie-talkie conversations of the gang in error. Journalists in the 1970s already knew what kind of subjects were out of bounds. The entry hole he, Tucker and a third gang member created in Le Sac was 15 inches (38cm) wide[21] and through 6 inches (15cm) of concrete. Reggie sworn off criminal cases takes on the case of a black cab driver accused of murder. He called the police, who initially did not take him seriously, so he used a small cassette recorder to make a recording of the burglars' conversations. The gang had leased a leather goods shop two doors down from the bank and spent three months studiously digging a tunnel from the basement of the shop, beneath the neighbouring Chicken Inn and into the vault. If the police had used this information, they would almost certainly have caught the men before they even made it into the bank. Get Free Access to the biggest Criminal Database on the web. The conspiracy theory that British intelligence was involved in the robbery to cover up a royal scandal is not outlandish, but it also revolves around their ability to suppress subsequent reporting using the D-notice system. He later said that he lost 2 stone (28lb; 13kg) in the process. Three of these men were named as: Anthony Gavin,38, aphotographerfromDalston; Thomas Stephens,35, acar dealerfromIslington; and Reginald Tucker,37, acompany directorfromHackney, who all pleadedguiltyand who each received twelve years imprisonment. The National Archives, "The Great Train Robbery: Why do we have such a peculiar romantic fondness for thieves? [2] He decided to use a nearby premises and tunnel up into the floor of the bank; the plan was inspired by "The Red-Headed League", an 1891 short story by Arthur Conan Doyle. The British Council, "Closed extracts: Approximately 800 pages". Although little or no hard evidence exists in the public domain for the scenario depicted in the Bank Job, the writers of the film - Dick Clement and Ian Le Frenais, say they had a deep throat style informant who was involved in the original investigation to confirm the events depicted in the film. On Sunday afternoon police gained entry to the Baker Street branch of Lloyds, located on the junction with Marylebone Road. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. The Baker Street robbery was the burglary of the safe deposit boxes at the Baker Street, London branch of Lloyds Bank, on the night of 11 September 1971.. Police continued the hunt for 5 IN. This enabled police to track down Anthony Gavin of Brownlow Road, Dalston, Thomas Gray Stephens from Maygood Street, Islington and Reginald Samuel Tucker from Lee Street, Hackney. Newspapers and later publications provided the following estimates: 231,000 in 1973 equates to approximately 2,972,000 in 2023, according to calculations based on the, 2,500 in 1973 equates to approximately 32,000 in 2023, according to calculations based on the, 75,000 in 1971 equates to approximately 1,128,000 in 2023, according to calculations based on the, 30,000 in 1971 equates to approximately 451,000 in 2023, according to calculations based on the, 500,000 in 1973 equates to approximately 6,433,000 in 2023, according to calculations based on the, 660,000 in 1977 equates to approximately 4,362,000 in 2023, according to calculations based on the, 3,000 to 4,000 in 1971 equates to approximately 45,000 to 60,000 in 2023, according to calculations based on the.