The Search for the Securitas Millions
February 16, 2011 6:53 AM   Subscribe

In February 2006, a group of criminals pulled off the biggest cash heist in the history of the UK, making off with £53 million pounds. To date, only £23 million of the money has been recovered. Police are understandably upset about the dead ends in the case.
posted by reenum (12 comments total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
 
The police are upset?
posted by edgeways at 7:26 AM on February 16, 2011 [1 favorite]


I'd reckon they're not nearly as upset as the poor guy who keeps getting cattle-prodded.
posted by cmonkey at 7:31 AM on February 16, 2011 [2 favorites]


The insurance companies are a little more upset, I'd imagine (since the money was, in the end, stolen from them).
posted by jaduncan at 7:34 AM on February 16, 2011


Brilliant article - I only buy two newspapers each week - the FT on Saturday, and the Guardian on Saturday (& I usually spend longer reading the FT).

Fascinating explanations of how laundering works, and how banks care a lot less where the money came from if you're paying off a debt than if you're paying in to create a credit.
posted by DanCall at 7:44 AM on February 16, 2011


They may be masked thugs armed with a cattle-prod, but at least they fed the dog (though I shouldn't make light of the shitty situation for the Crows).
Great article, thanks for the post. Agree with Dan that the FT's one of the last papers worth reading and it's that way they look at the mechanics behind the obvious that make it so.
posted by Abiezer at 7:54 AM on February 16, 2011


Fascinating.
posted by ob at 8:30 AM on February 16, 2011


Why don't they just waterboard some motherfuckers? It's clearly the best and quickest means of intelligence gathering.
posted by spicynuts at 8:46 AM on February 16, 2011


I was trying to figure out if this was the huge robbery where they stole hard-to-launder Irish pounds. I don't think it is, but in my search I found this interesting summary.

http://wildammo.com/2010/10/07/10-most-incredible-bank-heists-in-history/

And when I say summary... a one or two paragraph description of each heist, and all 10 are listed on the one page.
posted by uncanny hengeman at 9:31 AM on February 16, 2011


Whenever I hear stories of lost money I assume that original sum was inflated for Insurance Porpoises.
posted by srboisvert at 10:15 AM on February 16, 2011 [1 favorite]


heh
posted by clavdivs at 10:22 AM on February 16, 2011


uncanny hegemon: I was trying to figure out if this was the huge robbery where they stole hard-to-launder Irish pounds.

No, this one is the Securitas robbery (number 3 on that list) and the Irish one was the Northern Bank robbery (number 8 on that list). It's very easy to confuse the two since: 1) they both occurred in the UK, 2) they happened within a year and a half of each other, and 3) they both used similar MOs -- kidnapping or holding hostage bank/depot managers.
posted by mhum at 5:30 PM on February 16, 2011


Mastermind looks like Jamie Oliver. Have they questioned him?
posted by IndigoJones at 3:11 PM on February 17, 2011


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