Stefanie Martini as Marnie Palmer and Tom Cullen as John Palmer, the real “Goldfinger,” who melted gold bars in his garden.

Thick as Thieves

The Gold, a new British heist series, tells the true story of the Brink’s-Mat robbers, who accidentally re-invented modern crime

By Stephen Armstrong

In November 1983, six armed robbers burst into the Brink’s-Mat warehouse near Heathrow hoping to steal $1.2 million in foreign currency. While some of the gang doused the guards in petrol, the leader noticed a huge pile of gray boxes stacked on the floor. He opened one and, with that, British crime and policing changed forever.

Inside was gold bullion. The crooks drove off with 6,114 lbs of gold worth about $32 million — roughly $123 million today — a haul that made the proceeds of the Great Train Robbery, at $2.8 million, look like small change. The Brink’s-Mat heist flooded the country with illicit gold, sparked two decades of bloodshed and ushered in a new age of white-collar crime and financial fraud.