List of heists in the United Kingdom

A heist is a theft of cash or valuable objects such as artworks, jewellery or bullion. This can take the form of either a burglary or a robbery, the difference in English and Welsh law being that a robbery uses force (which means that some of the heists commonly known as robberies were actually burglaries).[1][2] In order to be listed here, each heist which took place in the United Kingdom is required to have taken £1 million or more at contemporary rates.

The Portrait of Jacob de Gheyn III by Rembrandt has been stolen four times in total

History

The earliest heist on the list is the Great Gold Robbery of 1855, in which railway safes were pillaged on a train going from London to Paris. The gang stole £12,000, equivalent to £1,130,000 in 2019, taking inflation into account.[3][4] The largest heist in terms of the amount stolen (also one of the world's biggest) was the 1990 City bonds robbery, when a courier carrying 301 bearer bonds worth £291.9 million (equivalent to £668 million in 2019) was robbed on a small City of London street. All but two of the certificates were subsequently recovered, with the heist revealing the global nature of organised crime networks and directly leading to two murders.[5][6]

The Baker Street robbery was an audacious heist in 1971 which netted the criminals an estimated £3 million (equivalent to £43 million in 2019). They tunnelled into a vault below a Lloyds Bank from a shop two doors down the road. Whilst four people were convicted, only one of the five ringleaders had been caught.[7] The Hatton Garden safe deposit burglary of April 2015 shared some similarities with the Baker Street robbery.[7] Five members of the gang were quickly arrested, yet a sixth man known only as "Basil" remained free. He was caught in 2018, when the police raided his flat and found gold and jewellery worth £143,000.[8]

The tunnel dug in preparation for the Baker Street robbery

It later transpired that Brian Reader was the mastermind of both the Baker Street and the Hatton Garden heists. He was 76 at the time of the latter.[7] Reader had also been involved in the Brink's-Mat robbery of 1983, for which he served eight years in prison.[9] Terry Perkins was another member of the Hatton Garden gang, who had previously been convicted for his part in the 1983 Security Express robbery and sentenced to 22 years. He absconded from HM Prison Spring Hill and was on the run for 17 years before being caught and serving out the rest of his sentence.[10] Perkins died in HM Prison Belmarsh in 2018, aged 69.[11] Perkins and Danny Jones (also convicted for the Hatton Garden robbery) were both linked to a previous heist at the Chatila jewellers in Old Bond Street, in 2010.[12]

Another large heist was the Knightsbridge Security Deposit robbery in 1986, which took at least £40 million (equivalent to £118 million in 2019). An Italian man later received a 22 year prison sentence for planning the venture with the help of an insider.[13] The gang which carried out the Securitas depot robbery in 2006 impersonated police officers in order to take the manager and his family hostage, stealing £53 million (equivalent to £77 million in 2019) and leaving another £153 million behind for lack of space in the getaway vehicle. Five men were later convicted and given sentences of between five and ten years.[13] The Northern Bank robbery was Northern Ireland's biggest robbery in 2004. Two managers and their families were taken hostage on Sunday and the heist took place on Monday evening. The Democratic Unionist Party accused the Provisional Irish Republican Army of organising it but nobody has ever been convicted.[14] Likewise, no-one responsible for the 1952 Eastcastle Street robbery was ever apprehended, although gangster Billy Hill admitted to organising it in his memoirs.[15]

The network of criminals termed the Pink Panthers has been linked to several robberies of the Graff jewellery shops in London.[16] The Johnson Gang robbed many stately homes, including Ramsbury Manor, then the home of Harry Hyams, where they plundered goods worth approximately £30 million and Waddesdon Manor, where they took snuffboxes worth £5 million.[17]

A golden toilet by Maurizio Cattelan

Regarding artworks, the Portrait of Jacob de Gheyn III by Rembrandt is held by Dulwich Picture Gallery and has been stolen a total of four times.[18][19] The painting, which is 12 by 10 inches (30 by 25 cm), was first stolen in 1967 along with 13 other works; they were all found within a week. It was next taken in 1973 by a thief who jumped on a bicycle to make his getaway and was caught within minutes. In 1981, three men took the painting and it was later retrieved from a taxi. The last theft occurred in 1983, when thieves broke into the gallery using ladders; the painting was discovered three years later at a station in Münster, Germany.[20] The Portrait of the Duke of Wellington by Goya was stolen in 1961 from the National Gallery in London. Four years later, Kempton Bunton returned the painting and later gave himself up to the police, although it was revealed long after his death that it was actually his son who had stolen the artwork.[21]

Other stolen artworks include Reclining Figure 1969–70 by Henry Moore, stolen in 2005 and America, which was a golden toilet made as an artwork by Maurizio Cattelan.[22][23] It was plumbed in to the water mains and being exhibited at Blenheim Palace when it was stolen in 2019. Cattelan said the thieves were "great performers".[23]

Heists
NameIllustrationLocationYearAmount[3]
AmericaBlenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire2019£4.6 million (equivalent to £4.6 million in 2019)[24]
Baker Street robberyBaker Street, London1971Around £3 million (equivalent to £43 million in 2019)[25]
Bank of America robberyMayfair, London1975£8 million (equivalent to £68 million in 2019)[26]
Brink's-Mat robberyHeathrow International Trading Estate, London1983£26 million (equivalent to £100 million in 2019)[13]
Buccleuch Madonna Drumlanrig Castle, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland2003£25 million (equivalent to £40 million in 2019)[27]
City bonds robberyNicholas Lane, City of London1990£291.9 million (equivalent to £700 million in 2019)[5]
Chatila heistOld Bond Street, London2010£1 million (equivalent to £1 million in 2019)[12]
Croydon Aerodrome robberyCroydon Airport, London1935£21,000 (equivalent to £1,500,000 in 2019)[28]
Eastcastle Street robberyEastcastle Street, London1952£287,000 (equivalent to £8,318,814 in 2019)[15]
Marlborough diamond robberySloane Street, London1980£1.5 million (equivalent to £10 in 2019 million)[29]
Graff workshop robberyHatton Garden workshop, London1993£7 million (equivalent to £14 in 2019 million)[30]
Graff robbery 2003New Bond Street, London2003£23 million (equivalent to £40 in 2019 million)[16]
Graff robbery 2005Sloane Street, London2005£2 million (equivalent to £3 in 2019 million)[16]
Graff robbery 2007Sloane Street, London2007£10 million (equivalent to £10 in 2019 million)[16]
Graff Diamonds robberyNew Bond Street, London2009£40 million (equivalent to £54 in 2019 million)[13]
Great Gold RobberyBetween London and Folkestone1855£12,000 (equivalent to £1,130,000 in 2019)[4]
Great Train RobberyMentmore, Buckinghamshire1963£2.6 million (equivalent to £100 million in 2019)[13]
Hatton Garden safe deposit burglaryHatton Garden, London2015£14 million (equivalent to £16 million in 2019)[1]
Knightsbridge Security Deposit robberyKnightsbridge, London1987£40 million (equivalent to £118 million in 2019)[13]
Midland Bank Clearing CentreSalford, Manchester1995£6.6 million (equivalent to £10 million in 2019)[1]
Northern Bank robberyBelfast2004£26.5 million (equivalent to £40 million in 2019)[31]
Portland TiaraHarley Gallery and Foundation, Nottinghamshire2018"National treasure"[32]
Portrait of Georgiana, Duchess of DevonshireThomas Agnew & Sons, Mayfair, London1876£10,605 (equivalent to £1,005,000 in 2019)[33]
Portrait of Jacob de Gheyn IIIDulwich Picture Gallery, London1967, 1973, 1981, 1983Valued at $10 million in 2011, or approximately £6.2 million (equivalent to £8 million in 2019)[34]
Portrait of the Duke of WellingtonNational Gallery, London1961£140,000 (equivalent to £3,139,000 million in 2019)[21]
Ramsbury ManorRamsbury, Wiltshire2006£30 million (equivalent to £44 million in 2019)[17]
Reclining Figure 1969–70Perry Green, Hertfordshire2005£3 million (equivalent to £5 million in 2019)[22]
Securitas depot robberyTonbridge, Kent2006£53 million (equivalent to £100 million in 2019)[35]
Security ExpressShoreditch, London1983£6 million (equivalent to £20 million in 2019)[1]
View of Auvers-sur-OiseAshmolean Museum, Oxford2000£3 million (equivalent to £5 million in 2019)[36]
Waddesdon ManorAylesbury, Buckinghamshire2003£5 million (equivalent to £8 million in 2019)[17]

See also

References
  1. Grierson, Jamie (14 January 2016). "The UK's top 10 heists". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 23 June 2020. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
  2. "Theft Act". Act of 1968. Archived from the original on 2020-05-07. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
  3. UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved February 2, 2020.
  4. "The Great Gold Robbery, 1855". British Transport Police. n.d. Archived from the original on 24 June 2020. Retrieved 21 June 2020.
  5. Friedberg, Arthur L. (27 April 2020). "Rare £1,000,000 Bank of England Treasury note is in sale". Coin World. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  6. Thompson, Tony (1996). Gangland Britain: Inside Britain's most dangerous gangs (eBook). Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 978-1-4447-1985-7. Retrieved 20 June 2020.
  7. Lashmar, Paul (15 January 2016). "Hatton Garden ringleader 'also masterminded Lloyds heist 45 years ago'". The Independent. Archived from the original on 23 October 2019. Retrieved 21 June 2020.
  8. "Hatton Garden ringleader 'Basil' found guilty over £14m heist". The Guardian. 15 March 2019. Archived from the original on 9 June 2019. Retrieved 21 June 2020.
  9. Sandford, Daniel (9 December 2015). "Hatton Garden Heist: Brink's-Mat link". BBC News. Archived from the original on 1 July 2020. Retrieved 21 June 2020.
  10. Beake, Nick (14 January 2016). "Was Hatton Garden for burglar's pension?". BBC News. Archived from the original on 21 June 2020. Retrieved 21 June 2020.
  11. Patel-Carstairs, Sunita (5 February 2018). "Hatton Garden raid ringleader Terry Perkins dies in prison". Sky News. Archived from the original on 26 June 2020. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
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  15. Campbell, Duncan (23 January 2016). "One last job: the inside story of the Hatton Garden heist". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 23 May 2020. Retrieved 21 June 2020.
  16. Chiu, Richard. "Pink Panthers: Europe's mysterious gang of thieves". Jeweller Magazine. Archived from the original on 16 August 2019. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  17. Sharp, Rob (27 January 2009). "The Johnsons: "Britain's No 1 crime family"?". The Independent. Archived from the original on 22 June 2020. Retrieved 21 June 2020.
  18. Esterow, Milton (15 August 2011). "How Rembrandts Were Stolen 81 Times". Art News. Retrieved 11 July 2020.
  19. Amore, Anthony M.; Mashberg, Tom (2011). Stealing Rembrandts: The Untold Stories of Notorious Art Heists (eBook). St. Martin's Publishing Group. p. 55. ISBN 978-0-230-33742-8. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  20. Amore, Anthony M.; Mashberg, Tom (2011). Stealing Rembrandts: The Untold Stories of Notorious Art Heists (eBook). St. Martin's Publishing Group. pp. 63–68. ISBN 978-0-230-33742-8. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  21. Hutchinson, Jeremy (n.d.). "The 'theft' of the Duke of Wellington". The Lady. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  22. "£3m Henry Moore sculpture stolen". 17 December 2005. Archived from the original on 10 October 2007. Retrieved 21 June 2020.
  23. "Artist behind £4.8m gold toilet praises thieves who have taken it". Sky News. 15 September 2019. Archived from the original on 14 September 2019. Retrieved 21 June 2020.
  24. Media, P. A. (15 September 2019). "Artist pans claims he orchestrated theft of solid gold toilet". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 15 September 2019. Retrieved 21 June 2020.
  25. Bowers, Gordon (2016). The Great Diamond Heist – The Incredible True Story of the Hatton Garden Diamond Geezers. Kings Road Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78606-078-5. Retrieved 21 June 2020.
  26. "The role of the 'inside man'". BBC News. 28 January 2008. Archived from the original on 5 March 2012. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
  27. Cramb, Auslan (4 October 2007). "Four held as stolen da Vinci painting found". Archived from the original on 17 June 2020. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  28. Whalley, Kirsty (26 January 2009). "Secrets of gold bullion heist revealed". Sutton & Croydon Guardian. Archived from the original on 27 March 2019. Retrieved 21 June 2020.
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  32. Hardy, Jack (7 December 2018). "Four arrested over theft of 'national treasure' tiara during audacious gallery raid". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 9 December 2018. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  33. "Gainsborough's "Duchess of Devonshire"". The Sydney Mail. 13 October 1877. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
  34. Amore, Anthony M.; Mashberg, Tom (2011). Stealing Rembrandts: The Untold Stories of Notorious Art Heists (eBook). St. Martin's Publishing Group. p. 68. ISBN 978-0-230-33742-8. Retrieved 6 July 2020.
  35. "£53m raid gang 'kidnapped child'". 26 June 2007. Archived from the original on 3 July 2007. Retrieved 21 June 2020.
  36. Ezard, John (3 January 2000). "Smoke bomb masks burglar's theft of £3m Cezanne". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 19 December 2019. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
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