On a sunny May morning in 1990, a bank courier strode out of the Bank of England and was robbed at knifepoint of 301 bearer bonds worth £292 million. It was the biggest theft in British history.
An hour before the heist, Keith Cheeseman – a well-known fence who had served time for bank robbery – got a call from Henry Nunn, a dodgy lawyer connected to London’s underworld. He invited Keith to a meeting that night with a Swiss banker, an IRA operative and the gangster Ray Ketteridge.
Cheeseman and the banker counted the bonds and were shocked to discover that the sum stolen was £427 million – £135 million more than reported by the Bank of England and a police spokesman on the BBC six o’clock news.
Keith Cheeseman
As Keith set out to launder the bonds, Scotland Yard and the FBI were always one step ahead in tracking them down. Over the next eighteen months, two men were shot dead – the original thief who stole the bonds and a gangland figure in the United States – each with a double tap to the head, assassination style.
Bonds were discovered in two Miami telephone books smuggled to Coke King Pablo Escobar – he used bearer bonds as a guarantee to acquire rare animals for his personal zoo in Medellin, just as US Colonel Oliver North used bonds to smuggle arms from Iran to the right-wing Contras trying to overthrow the elected left-wing government in Nicaragua. Three Irishmen with links to the IRA caught with £77 million in bonds hidden in their luggage claimed they had been planted. Two years later, one of the men, Tommy Coyle, had the audacity to buy a racehorse and call it ‘77 Mill.’
More than eighty people – including gang leader Ray Ketteridge – were arrested and walked free as it was ‘not in the public interest to prosecute.’ Keith Cheeseman, caught on an FBI wiretap, was extradited to the United States, charged with fencing £292 million in bonds and was the only man ever jailed for the crime. He served almost four years of a six year sentence in some of the toughest prison blocks in America.
An Offer You Can’t Refuse
After thirty years living in Turkey – in a villa with a pool, a beautiful wife, six large dogs and a wine cellar – the statute of limitations ended and Keith Cheeseman decided it was time to tell the incredible true story of what the newspapers had dubbed the City Bonds Robbery. Through old friends in the entertainment business, he contacted the literary agent Andrew Lownie. That same day, I got a call from Andrew with an offer no writer could refuse.
The man I met was what I thought of as a Gentleman Gangster, sharp, funny, generous, a con man who detests violence, drives smart cars, wears Savile Row suits and gold watches. He knew the legendary Kray twins and once played chess in HM Pentonville with the torturer and killer Frankie Fraser.
‘I suppose you’re going to kill me if I win?’ Keith said.
‘You bet your life I will.’
‘Thank Gawd for that. I can’t stand the food in here.’
Frankie Fraser was a man who never laughed. He laughed.
After a lot of recording sessions over a lot of glasses of raki, Keith reveals in How to Rob the Bank of England how it was insiders in the bank who planned the heist and, finally, what happened to the missing £135 million.
HOW TO ROB THE BANK OF ENGLAND is available in all good bookshops in the UK and all the Amazons in Europe and the US.
Some Reviews
- This is a real jaw-dropper. The scale of the theft, the global links of the gangs. The extraordinary figure of Keith Cheeseman. I had no idea – it’s just wonderful! ― Peter York
- This book tells it warts and all – once started, it’s impossible to put down. A fantastic read. ― Dominic Littlewood
- A strange and intriguing tale. ― Duncan Campbell, author of Underworld
- The Mafia Godfather Jon Gotti called him the Big Cheese. He partied with the stars. He stayed in the best hotels and drank vats of fizz. Keith Cheeseman’s story is laced with his wide-boy humour and reads like a Guy Ritchie caper. ― Oliver Harvey, The Sun
- There is a tremendous cast of dodgy customers surrounding our protagonist. I’m amazed he lived to tell the tale. And ultimately remains at liberty. Funny/sad with laugh-out loud dialogue too. This really should be made into a big box-office film. Riveting. ― Andy Martin
Get your copy discounted on Amazon.