Armed Robbery: From the Great Train Robbery to the Graff's Gem Heist - Hardcover

In the last fifty years, the changing face of British crime has turned the UK into the wild west of Europe. For decades drugs dominated the UK underworld, but in recent years a spate of major robberies—or heists—has grabbed the headlines. The first and most notorious of these was the Great Train Robbery of 1963, an audacious assault on both a train and British social sensibilities, as the first modern-day crime of its kind. In this entertaining and engaging exploration of real-life British crime, seasoned underworld expert Wensley Clarkson tells the amazing stories behind the twelve most heinous armed robberies ever staged in the UK. The dirty dozen of heists includes the notorious Chainsaw Gang Blackwall Tunnel raid of 1975, the drama of the huge Brinksmat gold bullion robbery of 1983, and the biggest cash theft in British history—the 2006 assault on the Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent, in which more than £53 million was taken in used bank notes. The inside stories of these dramatic crimes are told in compelling detail, including first-hand accounts and rare anecdotes.