Biggest robberies in the World

Crime does not pay. Some crimes, however, bring major paydays. But when we look through their life after the crime, for the rest of their lives they are in the process of either getting caught or being killed, which comprises of the “does not pay” part. At least for one day in their life the criminals responsible for these robberies would have felt like they have won a big lottery, with the enormous amounts they have wiped out of the places listed below.

On August 8 1963, armed robbers stole £2.6m, from a Glasgow to London Royal Mail train, near BridegoBridge. The robbers were   a gang of 15, who wore ski masks and gloves. They were helped by an insider who gave them sensitive information regarding train schedule and cargo. Another person provided a farm in Buckinghamshire as a hideout for the gang.

The train was stopped by turning off a green signal and turning on a red signal. The fireman of the train, who went to investigate the problem, was captured and the train’s engineer was badly injured with a blow on his head. The robbers took around 120 mailbags to the farm where they divided the loot among themselves. They then hired six people to burn down the farmhouse, but police found everyone’s fingerprints. 12 of the 15 robbers were caught and jailed. One of the jailed robbers, Ronnie Biggs escaped from prison in 1965.

In 1983 almost £6m was stolen from the Security Express headquarters in Shoreditch, East LondonUnited Kingdom. The ex-husband of actress Barbara Windsor, Ronnie knight admitted for handling some of the proceeds, and he was jailed after spending 10 years in Spain where he fled on the night his brother John was arrested in 1984. But he denied taking part in the robbery. John Knight was jailed for 22 years.

On May the 2^nd 1990 at 9.30am on a quiet street in the city of London, John Goddard, a 58-year-old messenger who was working for the money broker Sheppards, was robbed at knifepoint. Goddard was carrying the Bank of England’s treasury bills and certificates of deposits from banks and building societies. The robber escaped with 301 treasury bills and certificates of deposit which were worth almost £1m each, coming up to a total of £292m.

Police believed that the mugging was carried out by Patrick Thomas, who was found dead from a gunshot wound on his head in December 1991. He was never charged with robbery. Keith Cheeseman received six and a half years jail sentence for his part in the robbery. Four other people were charged with handling the bonds. Police recovered all but two of the 301 bonds.

A gang planned to use corrupt British telecom employees to install phone taps on the lines between cash dispensers and the bank, which would supply vital information. The gang planned to record the pin number of cards in their encrypted form along with the CVV on a memory board, and then decrypt the data to be restored on new plastic cards and magnetic strips. They could then use these cards to withdraw huge sums of money from cash points all over the world.

The gang included the M25 murderer Kenneth Noye, and a lot others out of whom, seven conspirators from Kent and London admitted their part in the plot.  The plan came into light when the computer expert, whom the gang tried to recruit, went to the police. It could have been the biggest theft in British history.

Police caught a gang smashing into the Millennium Dome with a JCB earthmover. They were on an attempt to rob £200m worth of diamonds. Four men were sentenced at Old Bailey for conspiracy to rob while the fifth was found guilty of a lesser charge for conspiracy to steal. This incident was foiled by police as the “Robbery of the Millennium”

On the 11^th of February 2002 a gang of thieves attacked the driver of a security van and escaped with an estimated £6.5m in cash. The driver was attacked by at least two men in a secure area at terminal 4 around 6:30 am. The robbers pushed the driver to the ground and tied his wrists and transferred the cash into another British airways van, which was later found abandoned and burned.

On December the 19^th 2004, a gang of men disguised as police officers, broke into the homes of two Northern bank employees Chris Ward and Kevin McMullan. They took them and their families’ hostage. Ward was moved to McMullen’s house where McMullen’s wife was taken to a forest in Belfast. The hostage takers gave the two employees, orders as to what has to be done the following day. The two officials reported to work on 20^th of December and at the end of the day when everyone went home, they let the gang members into the bank. When the vehicle was completely loaded, they left and returned for the second load. A total of £26.5m was stolen. Police in Northern Ireland and Irish republic believe that the IRA stole the Northern bank.

Guards at a bank in Baghdad made off with $282m (£141.9m) in US dollars in July 2007. The robbery took place at the Dar Es Salaam bank which is a private financial institution. The robbery was carried out by three guards and is believed that the robbers had connections to the militias; otherwise it would have been difficult for them to move through many checkpoints in Baghdad without being searched.