Latest news with #BrinksMat
Daily Mail
05-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Retired detective gave talk at charity lunch over how he caught Brink's-Mat villain Kenneth Noye - only to discover he was in the audience
A retired detective has revealed he once gave a talk at a charity lunch about how he caught Brink's-Mat villain Kenneth Noye - only to discover he was in the audience. Ian Brown, 86, played a key role in solving the infamous £26million heist in 1983 - which has been dramatised for BBC show The Gold over the last two years - in the months after it took place. The officer was tasked with tracking the 6,800 gold bars after they were transported to the US and Caribbean. Mr Brown did not personally arrest Noye but he established him as a suspect following his investigation into one of the UK's most expensive robberies. But years later, the former Detective Superintendent came face to face with his adversary once again while giving a seemingly innocuous lecture at a Kent golf club. Officials at the venue took him off stage after learning of Noye's appearance in the crowd. Mr Brown told Sky News: 'I go outside and they say "he's here" and I say "who's here" and they say "that table over there in the corner, that's Kenny Noye with a baseball cap pulled down over his head".' He added that there were deep discussion about how to respond to the presence of gangster, who stabbed an undercover policeman to death during the Brink's-Mat probe before using a knife to murder motorist Stephen Cameron 11 years later. 'I said "are you serving food? Well, just use plastic knives",' the ex-cop joked. Eventually, Mr Brown went over to Noye and asked why he had shown up to a discussion about how he had killed undercover officer DC John Fordham in 1985 after finding him hiding in the grounds of his 20-acre estate in West Kingsdown, Kent. The villain was acquitted of murder in this instance but was jailed for handling the gold stolen in the Brink's-Mat robbery, before later being jailed for the stabbing of Mr Cameron. The former policeman added: 'And he said "I want to make sure you don't say I've been dealing drugs" and I said 'I've never said that Kenny".' Mr Brown insisted he would not be adjusting his presentation just because Noye was in the crowd. The gangster said he completely understood, and even offered to make an appearance on the stage with the ex-cop. It wasn't the first time the pair had come face to face, with Noye famously conducting an ill-fated TV interview with Mr Brown years before. The officer was left frustrated following the discussion as the villain repeatedly insisted he was not involved in the Brink's-Mat heist. The segment was never broadcast as prison authorities said Noye had breached his parole, even threatening to send him back to jail. The Gold has recently returned to screens for a second season but Mr Brown added that he had been left less than impressed by the show. He argued that the already enthralling story had been unnecessarily dramatised and that some characters had been completely made up. Mr Brown was also frustrated that he could not work out who was supposed to be playing him in the series. Noye was convicted in 1986 of handling stolen gold after 11 bullion bars were recovered from his home. He was jailed for 14 years and fined £500,000 and ordered to pay £200,000 costs, and served eight years behind bars. After being released, Noye then stabbed 21-year-old Mr Cameron to death on an M25 slip road in 1996 and was sentenced to life with a minimum of 16 years behind bars, before being released in 2019. The former gangster is separated from his wife Brenda Tremain, with whom he has two adult sons, Kevin and Brett. Noye was arrested after Stephen's girlfriend Danielle Cable, who witnessed the killing, was secretly taken by British police to Spain and identified Noye from a distance in a restaurant. He was extradited back to Britain in May 1999 and Miss Cable bravely gave evidence against Noye at the Old Bailey the following year. He was found guilty of murder and jailed for life.
Sky News
05-07-2025
- Sky News
How Britain's most notorious gangster turned up at a charity lunch to fact-check a retired detective's talk
Britain's most notorious gangster and the detective who pursued him have been involved in a bizarre confrontation…at a charity lunch. Former Detective Superintendent Ian Brown was at a Kent golf club and about to give a talk on the infamous £26m Brink's-Mat gold robbery when he was summoned from the stage by officials. Mr Brown, who appeared on the award-winning Sky News StoryCast podcast The Hunt For The Brink's-Mat Gold in 2019, said: "I go outside and they say 'he's here' and I say 'who's here' and they say that table over there in the corner, that's Kenny Noye with a baseball cap pulled down over his head." Noye stabbed to death an undercover policeman during the Brink's-Mat investigation, but was acquitted of murder, though he was jailed for handling the stolen gold. After his release, he used a knife again in the M25 road-rage murder of motorist Stephen Cameron. "They said what are we going to do?" said Mr Brown. "I said are you serving food? Well, just use plastic knives." Although Mr Brown had not personally arrested Noye over Brink's-Mat he had identified him as a suspect months after the robbery. Years later he met him during an ill-fated TV interview in which he quizzed him about his role in the robbery. He said: "He told me everything I wanted to know except the truth. He still insists he had nothing to do with it." The interview was never broadcast after the prison authorities threatened to send Noye back to jail for a breach of his parole. Mr Brown, 86, said: "I went over to him and said 'thanks for coming, nice of you to pop in', but I don't believe you've turned up with your sons and grandkids to listen to me telling how you killed a police officer. "And he said 'I want to make sure you don't say I've been dealing drugs' and I said 'I've never said that Kenny'." The retired detective told Noye he wasn't going to change his presentation just because he was there. "He said 'mate, I wouldn't expect you to and I'll come up [on stage] if you want me to'. "Can you think how he's turned up with his family to listen to somebody talking about you killing the police? Now, you put logic on that." The bizarre story emerged when I rang Mr Brown after I'd been told about the meeting. I also wanted to ask him about the recent BBC hit drama series The Gold which retold the story of the Brink's-Mat heist at Heathrow Airport in 1983. "It was an absolute shambles, far too much dramatic licence and the real story was so much better," said the ex-detective, whose job had been to follow the trail of the 6,800 gold bars to the US and the Caribbean. He said he chatted to one of the show's writers for a long time in a phone call but then heard no more. "They invented people, changed a bit here and there and made it politically correct in so many ways. I'm just very sad that that is what people will believe. "And I couldn't work out who my character was supposed to be. I could have been one of the female cops." He also criticised the portrayal of Noye, now 78, as a likeable jack-the-lad character when the truth about the double killer with a volatile temper was quite different.
The Independent
23-06-2025
- The Independent
Police seek ‘answers' on criminal John Palmer's killer 10 years on
Police have launched a fresh appeal for information about the murder of notorious criminal John 'Goldfinger' Palmer on the tenth anniversary of his death. The 65-year-old, once described as Britain's richest criminal, was found dead in the garden of his remote woodland home in South Weald, Essex, on June 24 2015. It is thought his killer entered the garden over the fence and shot Mr Palmer six times with a pistol as he was outside burning rubbish on a bonfire. Essex Police originally thought he had died of natural causes because of recent keyhole surgery to his chest, but it later emerged that officers had not properly inspected his body and he had been murdered in a suspected contract killing. A hole found in the fence suggested the killer may have been watching him in the days prior to the murder, the force said. Mr Palmer's killer remains at large despite detectives exploring hundreds of lines of inquiry and examining thousands of pieces of evidence over the last decade. The appeal comes amid a renewed focus on Mr Palmer's life because of the BBC drama series The Gold. Mr Palmer gained his 'Goldfinger' nickname after being acquitted of handling gold bullion in the £26 million Brink's-Mat raid in 1983, with the show's first season telling the story of the raid. Detective Superintendent Stephen Jennings said: 'Ten years on from John's death and the pain has not gone away for his family. They still rightly want answers as to who murdered him and why. 'His killing was a brutal, planned execution – he was shot multiple times in the grounds of his own home. 'Over the years there has been much commentary, media coverage and even television programmes speculating about his connections to the underworld, high-profile crimes and his past – but whatever someone's past, John was a father, partner and much loved by his family. 'His murder was callous and calculated.' Mr Palmer was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2001 for a £33 million timeshare fraud which had 16,000 potential victims. He was also being investigated by the Spanish authorities and was due to stand trial over alleged property fraud involving properties in Tenerife and Spain in 2017, with several other individuals involved in the scheme subsequently found guilty and sentenced. Mr Jennings said the the key to solving Mr Palmer's murder 'lies within the underworld' and the force suspected it was linked to the fraud trial. He added: 'In the years since his death a lot has changed within the criminal fraternity, including loyalties, and people may now feel able to come forward. 'If you do have information please, now, do the right thing, 10 years on John's family must have justice and answers.' Anyone with information on Mr Palmer's murder should call Essex Police, or contact independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Yahoo
23-06-2025
- Yahoo
Police seek ‘answers' on criminal John Palmer's killer 10 years on
Police have launched a fresh appeal for information about the murder of notorious criminal John 'Goldfinger' Palmer on the tenth anniversary of his death. The 65-year-old, once described as Britain's richest criminal, was found dead in the garden of his remote woodland home in South Weald, Essex, on June 24 2015. It is thought his killer entered the garden over the fence and shot Mr Palmer six times with a pistol as he was outside burning rubbish on a bonfire. Essex Police originally thought he had died of natural causes because of recent keyhole surgery to his chest, but it later emerged that officers had not properly inspected his body and he had been murdered in a suspected contract killing. A hole found in the fence suggested the killer may have been watching him in the days prior to the murder, the force said. Mr Palmer's killer remains at large despite detectives exploring hundreds of lines of inquiry and examining thousands of pieces of evidence over the last decade. The appeal comes amid a renewed focus on Mr Palmer's life because of the BBC drama series The Gold. Mr Palmer gained his 'Goldfinger' nickname after being acquitted of handling gold bullion in the £26 million Brink's-Mat raid in 1983, with the show's first season telling the story of the raid. Detective Superintendent Stephen Jennings said: 'Ten years on from John's death and the pain has not gone away for his family. They still rightly want answers as to who murdered him and why. 'His killing was a brutal, planned execution – he was shot multiple times in the grounds of his own home. 'Over the years there has been much commentary, media coverage and even television programmes speculating about his connections to the underworld, high-profile crimes and his past – but whatever someone's past, John was a father, partner and much loved by his family. 'His murder was callous and calculated.' Mr Palmer was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2001 for a £33 million timeshare fraud which had 16,000 potential victims. He was also being investigated by the Spanish authorities and was due to stand trial over alleged property fraud involving properties in Tenerife and Spain in 2017, with several other individuals involved in the scheme subsequently found guilty and sentenced. Mr Jennings said the the key to solving Mr Palmer's murder 'lies within the underworld' and the force suspected it was linked to the fraud trial. He added: 'In the years since his death a lot has changed within the criminal fraternity, including loyalties, and people may now feel able to come forward. 'If you do have information please, now, do the right thing, 10 years on John's family must have justice and answers.' Anyone with information on Mr Palmer's murder should call Essex Police, or contact independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
BBC News
23-06-2025
- BBC News
Police make renewed call over John 'Goldfinger' Palmer murder
Detectives have renewed their appeal for information 10 years after the murder of notorious and once wealthy criminal John "Goldfinger" 65-year-old was shot six times in the garden of his woodland mansion in South Weald near Brentwood at about 17:30 BST on 24 June earned his nickname after being accused of melting gold from the 1983 Brink's-Mat robbery and he scammed thousands of timeshare owners out of millions of pounds in Tenerife in the Police says his family still "rightly want answers" and believes loyalties in the "criminal fraternity" have changed. "His killing was a brutal, planned execution," said Det Supt Stephen Jennings of the Essex and Kent Serious Crime Directorate."Over the years there has been much commentary, media coverage and even television programmes speculating about his connections to the underworld, high profile crimes and his past."But whatever someone's past, John was a father, partner and much-loved by his family." In 1983, armed robbers stumbled upon £26m worth of gold, diamonds and cash in the Brink's-Mat warehouse near London Heathrow was found not guilty of conspiring to handle the stolen bullion at an Old Bailey trial in 1987, but the Met Police continued to investigate him. He amassed an estimated fortune of £300m in the 1990s, with a portfolio including mansions, helicopters, restaurants, a £750,000 yacht and classic in 2001, he was jailed for eight years at the Old Bailey for conspiracy to defraud, having scammed about 16,000 couples out of millions on Tenerife. In May 2015 - a month before his murder - Spanish prosecutors charged him with fraud, firearms possession and money laundering in relation to his timeshare believe a contract killer watched him through a spyhole in his fence at his property, before scaling the fence and shooting him at the only spot not covered by however, two police officers assessed his death as non-suspicious, owing to his wound from gall bladder surgery which took place a week earlier.A post-mortem examination on 30 June revealed he was actually shot in the chest, abdomen, arm, elbow, back and two officers later faced disciplinary action and Det Supt Jennings has previously admitted the force failed to carry out "background checks on John" and did not "really check the body well enough". In 2019, other individuals were found guilty as part of the same Spanish fraud indictment that Palmer had been charged with."We know the key to solving John's murder lies within the underworld and we have always suspected it may have been linked to the fraud trial," said Det Supt Jennings."A lot has changed within the criminal fraternity, including loyalties, and people may now feel able to come forward."A 43-year-old man from Rugby, Warwickshire, was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder in 2015, but was released without February 2017, detectives said a 50-year-old man from Tyneside, who lived in southern Spain, was questioned on suspicion of murder in what was a voluntary interview. He faced no further with information can call Essex Police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or via its website Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
