'They were nasty, vile villains': Roger Cook says worst of Brink's-Mat robbery isn't shown in Gold series

23 March 2023, 12:24 | Updated: 23 March 2023, 12:45

Roger Cook gives his take on the new series Gold based on the 1983 Brink's-Mat robbery

By LBC

@LBC

Investigative journalist Roger Cook has said the portrayal of the robbers in the series based on the 1983 robbery as "cheeky chappies" is "offfensive".

Nick Ferrari at Breakfast on LBC had mentioned the journalist's previous work on Kenneth Noye and John Palmer.

"They've come across as del boy, cheeky chappies. What's the reality Roger?" he asked.

"They were nasty, vile villains and I found the portrayal of them actually quite offensive. They were not cheeky chappies", Mr Cook replied.

"The series skated over the worst of it - for example there was almost no coverage of the murder in 1996 of the police surveillance officer John Fordham in the grounds of Noye's mock Tudor mansion in Kent.

"He was arrested almost immediately and as his victim bled out on the ground he said: 'I don't give an F who he is, I hope the b-----d dies'.

"He pleaded self-defence in court and was some how acquitted. Self defence? It was extreme and unnecessary violence. Fordham was unarmed and stabbed ten times - five in the chest, five in the back."

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Mr Cook described John Palmer as "another nasty piece of work", explaining how he smelted down and recast half of the Brink's-Mat gold to disguise its origins, and laundered £11m through his scrap precious metal business in Bristol.

He added that the criminal fled to Tenerife and built up a multi-million pound empire, "investing in timeshare property based on fraud and intimidation"

"He often double or treble sold the same timeshare slots in properties he hadn't even built", Mr Cook said, adding that "those who complained were threatened, their cars were torched and sometimes their legs were broken".

No one was ever charged with the torture of two of his former employees who went on to start a competing business, and "Palmer used to boast that he had the police and the judiciary on the island in his pocket", the journalist said.