Itchy Oxford article

'The Bank Job' and other tales

Itchy explores the story behind the movie along with some other notable heists...

With the Oscars and BAFTAs and all that over and done with, it's time to focus on next year's batch of box office hits. 'The Bank Job', starring Jason Statham and Saffron Burrows and set for release in cinemas 25th February, may or may not be one of them. The film charts one of the most impressive heists in UK history, set way back in the day in 1971 when such achievements were still possible. Thieves tunnelled into the vault of a bank in Baker Street and looted millions of pounds worth of cash and jewellery from safe deposit boxes. None of the goods were ever recovered and no arrests were ever made. Sounds like a job worthy of Danny Ocean's eleven.

The plot thickens with the revelation from the UK government 'D' notice that gagged the press and led to the removal of the story from headlines. And of course, what would a film be without a sex scandal with links to the Royal Family thrown in? The producers of the movie are describing it as 'an amazing, untold story of murder, sex and corruption' where 'the thieves are the most innocent ones involved'. Ok, murder and corruption fine, but the thieves are the most innocent involved? Did they not dig a tunnel into a bank and make off with a bunch of other people's money? Sounds a bit implausible to us, but hey, what do we know? Anyway, in case you're possibly interested in attempting a spectacular robbery of your own (not that we're suggesting it), here's a list of four other impressive heists that happened in the UK in the last 50 years:

Northern Bank: December 2004
A gang stole a whopping £26.4m from the headquarters of the Northern Bank in Belfast – the largest amount of cash ever taken in a robbery in the UK. The bank had to withdraw its notes and replace them with new ones with different logos and colours. Most of the stolen cash has yet to be recovered.

Millennium Dome: November 2000
Police foiled the attempted theft of £200m worth of diamonds on display at the tourist attraction in South London. The robbers were caught as they smashed their way into the Dome with a JCB digger and had planned their escape up the river Thames on a speedboat. But senior police officers, suspicious of a plan to steal the diamonds, mounted a sophisticated operation to thwart it. Thankfully it didn't dent the Dome's sparkling reputation.

City of London: May 1990
A financial messenger was robbed of £292m worth of bonds at knifepoint in a quiet City side street. The messenger was taking Bank of England Treasury bills and certificates of deposits from banks and building societies. The bonds were in bearer form and as good as cash to anyone holding them. Police believed the mugging was carried out by Patrick Thomas, a small-time crook from south London, who was found shot dead before being charged. The police recovered all but two of the 301 bonds thanks to an informant.

The Great Train Robbery: August 1963
Armed robbers, including Ronnie Biggs, stole £2.6m from the Glasgow-London Royal Mail train. The robbers stopped the train by turning off a green track signal and turning on a red one. The gang members were caught and sentenced to jail terms of up to 30 years. Biggs later escaped from Wandsworth prison and fled to Brazil. He returned to Britain in 2001 to serve the remainder of his sentence. 

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