Cliff Notes – I took the fall for the biggest robbery in British history after going on the run
- The City bonds robbery in May 1990 involved the theft of £292 million in bearer bonds, making it one of the largest heists in history, yet it remains relatively obscure.
- Keith Cheeseman, who served time for the crime despite not being involved in its planning, describes himself as a ‘facilitator’ and has since lived in Turkey, reflecting on his past with a mix of nostalgia and defiance.
- The documentary “Heist: Robbing the Bank of England” explores Cheeseman’s life post-robbery, revealing his complex feelings about the crime and his ongoing grievances with the banking system.
I took the fall for the biggest robbery in British history after going on the run
Keith Cheeseman is one of the only people to serve time for the City bonds robbery (Picture: Hearst Networks UK/Crime + Investigation)
You’ve probably never heard of the City bonds robbery, but it was one of the largest hauls in world history. As multi-million pound thefts go, even the Wikipedia page is comparatively threadbare.
In London, May 1990, a bank courier was robbed at knifepoint in broad daylight. His briefcase was stolen, with £292million inside.
It wasn’t banknotes or antique jewels like those nabbed from the Louvre that were stolen, but bearer bonds. This comparatively un-sexy target may be why the robbery hasn’t had the swish TV adaptation that Brink’s Mat (The Gold) or the Great Train Robbery (Mrs Biggs) both have.
Described by journalist Marcel Theroux as a ‘fancy IOU’ in his new documentary, a bearer bond is a slip of paper that can be cashed in at any bank, by whoever is holding it, for the money it states it’s worth. A single sheet can be worth £1million – this heist involved about 300 of them.
Despite being a sophisticated operation that involved the IRA and New York mafia, one of the only people to serve time for the crime was Keith Cheeseman, who had no part in its planning. He describes himself as a back-end ‘facilitator’ when he speaks to Metro from his home in Turkey.
He’s not hiding out, he tells us, he just likes living there more. Given that we speak on a grey, rainy British day, it’s a case that’s hard to argue with.
Marcel Theroux seeks out Cheeseman as part of his hunt for those responsible (Picture: Hearst Networks UK/Crime + Investigation)
Theroux visited ‘Chateau Cheeseman’ in Turkey (Picture: Hearst Networks UK/Crime + Investigation)
In the new Crime+Investigation documentary Heist: Robbing the Bank of England, presenter Theroux – brother and voice-twin of Louis – compares those with suspected involvement in the robbery to the cast of a Guy Ritchie film. Cheeseman tells us they were ‘wrong ’uns’ with a ‘grass’ among their ranks.
‘I was intent on trying to find out who that was, because that’s just not the done thing. Not English,’ he says. Having laundered a portion of the bonds, he was cuffed in the UK but fled on bail. One newspaper at the time claimed he had been found decapitated in a Surrey woodland. In reality, he was living the good life in Tenerife.
Cheeseman paints quite the picture of the moment US police apprehended him: ‘I’m in a penthouse in Spain. I just came back from a football match: Tenerife and Real Madrid. Just poured my first gin and tonic, and I got 26 police uniforms coming through the door.’
He was extradited, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six and a half years behind bars, which he says was ‘no hardship’, placing him a few cells down from John Gotti.
The circumstances of his arrest do make you wonder why no dramatisation has materialised yet. One could be on the way. The film rights to Cheeseman’s book have already been sold. He fancies Matt Damon would be a good choice to play his Lamborghini-driving self.
Cheeseman was described back in the day as a ‘smooth operator’ (Picture: Alamy Stock Photo/PA)
The documentary sees Cheeseman swing between moments of lavish extravagance – cracking open pink champagne, chomping on Montecristo cigars – and a nervous reluctance to dwell on certain aspects of the robbery, despite some direct questioning from Theroux.
Is he still scared of who might be out for him? ‘It does enter your head, but I’ve done nothing that can really upset anybody, apart from steal some money,’ he tells us. ‘I was initially, because it shouldn’t get to that position where people want to kill each other for a few bob. Well, it’s more than a few bob, but for a few bob. It just seems illogical.
‘I don’t look around corners looking for problems, because if somebody’s got a grief, come and see me.’
Even in the documentary, questions about what really happened linger on. In part because Cheeseman claims the value of bonds stolen was actually around £135m more than was reported – which would put the haul in excess of £400m.
At least one of these many millions, he can explain the absence of. He ripped it up.
Marcel Theroux visited the scene of the crime in London’s financial district (Picture: Hearst Networks UK/Crime + Investigation)
‘It broke my heart,’ he says, with a note of genuine anguish, recalling his gut feeling that his BMW was about to be searched in a customs queue. ‘As a criminal, you know when it’s coming on top. You get the feeling, so I knew something was up.
‘We were waiting to go into the search area and so I got the bond, ripped it up, put it in a coffee cup and shoved it in the bin. Somebody had a very nice coffee if they stuck it together.’
Cheeseman says he’s ‘not going to regret and repent’ what he did, but throughout our conversation repeats that his beef has only ever been with the banks. In his prior life as a straight-laced businessman, his building company’s loan with two banks was suddenly cancelled – despite having £7m of work coming in – and they went under. What followed is something of a vendetta.
‘I’m not advertising everybody become a bank robber, but I wish they would. The banks are really greedy. You have to admit, everybody admits that,’ he says.
So has he given it all up for the straight and narrow? ‘I’ve half given up,’ he smiles.
Heist: Robbing the Bank of England premieres Monday, November 3 on Crime+Investigation.
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