IT WAS just after 6.40am on a freezing November morning in 1983 when six masked raiders in fake security uniforms stormed into the Heathrow depot of security firm Brink’s-Mat.
Armed and dangerous, the gang overpowered guards, doused them in petrol and threatened to set them alight unless they gave up the vault combinations.
John ‘Goldfinger’ Palmer, pictured with wife Marnie, was killed in a notorious unsolved hit job after[/caption]
The Gold, which tells the story of the notorious heist, returned to screens this week[/caption]
Once inside, the robbers got the shock of their lives – stumbling across a hidden treasure trove of gold bullion and diamonds worth a staggering £26million.
In total, they made off with 6,800 gold bars – and it took them nearly two hours to load the lot into their getaway van.
By the time a guard raised the alarm at 8.30am, the gang had already vanished without a trace.
The audacious heist quickly went down in history as one of Britain’s biggest-ever – and inspired the gripping BBC crime drama The Gold, which returned to screens this week for a second series.
Here, we take a look at the key players behind the notorious robbery – and how many of them later met bloody, violent ends, gunned down as their criminal pasts caught up with them…
Micky McAvoy
Police believe Brian “The Nutter” McAvoy was the ringleader of the gang behind the infamous robbery – dubbed the “crime of the century.”
Just 30 at the time and the youngest of the six-man crew, McAvoy was already known as one of Britain’s most dangerous and prolific armed robbers.
He was arrested just 10 days after the raid and sentenced to 25 years behind bars in 1984.
He tried to cut a deal with prosecutors, offering to return his share of the stolen millions – but by then, the money had vanished.
In 1995, the courts ordered McAvoy to pay back a staggering £27.5 million, pinning the entire lost fortune on his shoulders.
Micky ‘The Nutter’ McAvoy was the ringleader of the notorious gang[/caption]
BBC drama The Gold follows the operation to bring the robbers to justice[/caption]
But McAvoy did not pay back any of the stolen money.
Despite being banged up, McAvoy married his second wife, Kathy, in 1986. The couple stayed together for 36 years until her death in 2022.
He was released on parole in 2000 after serving 16 years and later relocated to Spain with Kathy, where he kept a low profile and never spoke publicly about the raid.
He was believed to be owed a £3.5 million share from the robbery, but fellow gang members reportedly failed to keep his cut safe.
McAvoy died on New Year’s Day in 2023, aged 71. A coroner ruled he deliberately overdosed on sleeping pills, six months after his wife Kathleen died from a heart attack.
Brian Robinson
Brian Robinson was once a feared underworld figure but died penniless[/caption]
Brian “The Colonel” Robinson died penniless in a South East London nursing home, just shy of his 78th birthday.
Once a feared figure in the underworld, Robinson passed away after a long illness in February 2021, with not a penny to his name.
A close friend said at the time: “Robbo was a lovely man to his mates and family. But he was f***ed for his money.”
Robinson was a career crook who was once on the Flying Squad’s list of London’s top 20 armed robbers.
He was finally nailed in December 1983 – a month after the heist – when security guard Tony Black, who turned out to be his own brother-in-law, spilled the beans.
Dubbed the “inside man,” Black’s tip-off led to Robinson’s arrest and conviction for armed robbery. He was sentenced to 25 years but walked free in 2000 after serving 16.
Despite his criminal past, pals say Robinson, who had two kids, tried to turn his life around after prison but the big payday never came.
John Palmer
John ‘Goldfinger’ Palmer made a fortune after being acquitted of melting gold from the Brink’s-Mat robbery[/caption]
Jeweller and bullion dealer John ‘Goldfinger’ Palmer was arrested for his part in the heist, but argued in court that he was unaware that the gold he was handling was linked to the Brink’s-Mat robbery.
He was cleared of all charges against him but met a grisly end in 2015 when he was brutally gunned down in his garden – shot SIX times by a hitman who had been spying on him through a hole in his fence.
Cops say the professional assassin leapt over a 5ft fence and opened fire with a .32 revolver fitted with a silencer.
Palmer was hit three times from just six feet away and as he lay collapsed, the killer pumped three more 8mm bullets into him.
Three years after the 65-year-old’s murder police released chilling photos of the peephole used to stalk him from the fence surrounding his Essex home.
Essex Police said the killing bore “all the hallmarks” of a professional hit.
Officers believe up to 16,000 victims of Palmer’s scams may have had a motive to want him dead.
Palmer’s former home, named ‘Battlefields’, near Bath[/caption]
The convicted fraudster, who earned his nickname through his links to the Brink’s-Mat robbery, was jailed in 2001 over a £20million timeshare scam.
According to a BBC investigation, Palmer had been under secret surveillance by a police intelligence unit for 16 years — with the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (Soca), now the NCA, monitoring his every move.
His family have doubled the reward for information leading to the killer — now offering £100,000.
Palmer’s long-term partner Christina Ketley, 58, revealed her son and his then-girlfriend were inside the house at the time of the attack but escaped unharmed.
She said: “It haunts us that whoever was responsible was stalking John like an animal before so brutally and callously ending his life.”
Crimestoppers said: “There is a contract killer out there who needs to be caught.
“It’s hard to get the underworld to talk – but anyone who comes to us will be guaranteed anonymity.”
Despite detectives pursuing more than 700 lines of enquiry, Palmer’s killer has never been found.
Kenneth Noye
Kenneth Noye was found guilty of the murder of Stephen Cameron during a road rage fight on the M25[/caption]
Dubbed “Britain’s most dangerous man”, Kenneth Noye built a sprawling mock-Tudor mansion in Kent using proceeds from the infamous heist.
The gangster used the luxury pad to stash some of the stolen gold bullion – and stunned neighbours by strutting around the 20-acre estate with a pet LION.
Noye, considered one of the most violent members of the gang, was accused of murdering undercover officer DC John Fordham, who was investigating the £26million robbery.
In January 1985, two plain-clothes cops crept into Noye’s vast garden – but were met by his three snarling rottweilers.
Noye on day release from Kent Prison in 2018[/caption]
Jack Lowden as Noye in The Gold[/caption]
One officer managed to escape over a wall, but DC Fordham wasn’t so lucky. He was brutally stabbed by Noye, the blade piercing his heart and snapping a rib in half.
The detective died from six savage knife wounds.
Noye was later acquitted of murder, convincing a jury he acted in self-defence.
However, he was later convicted for conspiring to handle stolen gold from the Brink’s-Mat raid and sentenced to 14 years – serving just seven before being released in 1994.
But his violence didn’t stop there. In 1996, he stabbed 21-year-old Stephen Cameron to death in a road-rage attack on an M25 slip road.
He went on the run for two years before finally being caught and caged for 21 years for murder.
Noye was released in 2019 after serving the full sentence.
Brian Perry
Brian Perry was gunned down outside his minicab office[/caption]
Perry was convicted for his role in the Brink’s-Mat heist, charged with helping to dispose of the stolen gold bullion.
At the Old Bailey in 1992, he was sentenced to nine years behind bars for handling stolen goods.
The court heard how Perry had been trusted to look after the interests of fellow gang members McAvoy and Robinson on the outside – but instead set about feathering his own nest.
After serving his time, he appeared to go straight – setting up a minicab firm in South London and becoming a landlord.
To the outside world, Perry looked like just another friendly, silver-haired businessman.
His tenants had no idea he’d once been part of Britain’s most notorious gang.
But in 2001, Perry’s past caught up with him.
In a chilling act of violence, he was gunned down outside his minicab office in Bermondsey – shot three times in the head and body.
His killer has never been caught.
George Francis
George Francis, the man suspected of helping to handle the stolen Brink’s-Mat gold, was gunned down outside his courier business in Bermondsey in 2003 — aged 63.
His killer is believed to have lain in wait, watching for Francis’s green Rover 75. As he stepped out of the car, the hitman struck — blasting him in the head and chest at point-blank range with at least four bullets.
According to evidence heard at the Old Bailey, Francis was killed after trying to collect a £70,000 debt from a shady business contact.
The man suspected of pulling the trigger was John O’Flynn, a feared underworld figure and one-time associate of the Kray twins.
He was also believed to have played a part in laundering the loot from the heist.
John Palmer and his wife Marnie in Tenerife[/caption]
