Brink's-Mat robber Mick 'The Nutter' McAvoy dies aged 71 trends now
Shortly after 6.40am on November 26, 1983, six armed men in balaclavas – including one wearing a Trilby – entered a warehouse at Heathrow airport.
The property belonged to security company Brink's Mat and the robbers were there because they knew there was £3million in cash in the vault. They knew because their inside man, security guard Anthony Black, had told them. He even opened the door of the warehouse to let them in.
Led by Black's brother-in-law, Brian Robinson, and Trilby-clad Michael 'Micky' McAvoy, the gang tied up the guards and poured petrol over them, threatening to light it if they didn't comply.
Thanks to Black, they were able to identify the two most senior guards who, between them, held the keys and combination numbers for the vault where three safes were located.
Inside was more than three tonnes of gold bullion. Packed into more than 70 cardboard boxes were almost 7,000 gold bars. Someone had to fetch the van.
Weighed down by a heap of gold, the van idled its way out of Heathrow after one of the robbers wished the security guards a merry Christmas.
It didn't take the police long to connect Black to the raid and he soon implicated Robinson and McAvoy (who punched Black when he went to identify
