It was the biggest gold bullion robbery in British history. Central to the Brink’s Mat heist of 1983, John ’Goldfinger’ Palmer melted down huge amounts of gold in a shed at his secluded Georgian home on the outskirts of Bath. This is his story.
It will be 10 years in June 2025 since former Bath resident, gold dealer and time-share fraudster John Palmer was shot dead while burning garden rubbish at his home in Brentwood, Essex. It came as no surprise as Palmer, aged 65, also known to many as John ’Goldfinger’ Palmer – having conned thousands of their life savings – had no shortage of enemies. He was shot six times in a planned, efficient, gangland execution, and to this day his assassin has not been identified.
It all started on a cold November morning in 1983, when six armed villains led by Brian Robinson and Micky ‘The Nutter’ McAvoy surprised security guards as they started their Saturday shift at the Brink’s-Mat warehouse near Heathrow Airport, in what would become one of the most notorious heists in British history. Security guard Anthony Black, who was dating Robinson’s sister, provided the gang with crucial information about how to override the warehouse’s security systems. Once inside, the gang roughed up and handcuffed the staff. One guard was struck on the head with a pistol, and another was doused in petrol and threatened with being set on fire if they didn’t reveal the vault’s combination numbers.
It is estimated that Palmer from his shed in Bath melted down over £13 million worth of gold within the first 14 months
The original plan had been a quick ‘smash and grab’ of what the robbers believed might be £3 million. But they found a massive store of gold bullion. The 6,800 ingots weighed over three tonnes. Using the on-site forklift, it took the gang almost two hours to clear the safe. Their haul? £26 million worth of gold bullion, cash and diamonds. Today, the gold alone would be valued at over £110 million.
Following the heist, it only took the police a few days to make their first arrest by connecting Black’s involvement, and he soon implicated Robinson and McAvoy – who assaulted Black when he identified him in a line-up. Robinson and McAvoy were sentenced to 25 years in prison, while Black was ordered to serve six years.
For the remaining gang, stealing the gold had been relatively easy – but they were a motley crew with no experience of handling a haul of this scale. The challenge was how to convert their spoils into usable cash without attracting attention. They sought help from Kenneth Noye, a well-connected (but seldom charged) criminal who, with Brian Reader, had experience handling gold. Through them, they reached out to John Palmer, co-director of Scadlynn Ltd in Bedminster, Bristol.
Scadlynn bought and sold gold jewellery and Palmer regularly handled stolen valuables. He had expertise in precious metals and was the perfect accomplice. Noye offered Scadlynn 25 per cent to recycle the gold bars.
Palmer had recently moved into Battlefields, a large home in Lansdown, near Bath. Behind its charming Georgian facade, Palmer secretly conducted the enormous task of melting down the gold. In a shed at the bottom of his garden, he worked day and night, mixing stolen gold with copper (mainly from 2p coins) and unwanted jewellery, to reduce its purity and erase serial numbers. Scadlynn even rented pop-up shops in Bath and Bristol, encouraging locals to part with gold at above-market prices. This generated legitimate invoices and a paper trail to support their laundering.
It’s estimated Palmer melted down over £13 million in gold within 14 months. The low-grade bars were now untraceable, approved by the Assay Office and sold back on the open market. In another ruse, Noye’s legal contacts even invented a fake gold mine in Sierra Leone to suggest the rough bars were imported.
Despite a tip-off from neighbours days after the robbery, police didn’t act immediately. It was large cash movements through a local bank that aroused suspicion from the Bank of England, prompting a surveillance operation.
Over a year after the heist, police finally raided Scadlynn and Palmer’s home. But two days before the raid, possibly warned by an informer, Palmer fled to Tenerife with his wife Marnie and their two children.
In Tenerife, Palmer was untouchable and launched a new life. With his usual entrepreneurial talent, he spotted an opportunity for a time-share business, selling holiday homes to tourists.
With the authorities still tracking him and a new UK-Spain extradition treaty, Palmer fled to Brazil. But with an expired passport, he was refused entry and deported to the UK to face trial.
Palmer was arrested and charged with complicity in the robbery. While he admitted smelting the gold, he convinced the jury he didn’t know its origin – despite the heist being front-page news for over a year. During an interview with Kate Adie, Palmer said, “I am completely innocent of anything to do with this so-called Mats-Brink bullion raid.” Getting the name back to front, perhaps deliberately, implied ignorance and helped lead to his acquittal in 1987. Asked, “So why do you have a smelting shed in your garden?” Palmer replied sarcastically, “Doesn’t everybody?”
In an impromptu press gathering at Battlefields, photos show Palmer and Marnie celebrating in the courtyard of their home, Marnie clutching a Terry’s All Gold Easter egg.
After his acquittal, Palmer moved permanently to Spain, where his lifestyle flourished. From his luxury villa he resumed his time-share scam, selling dream holiday properties that didn’t exist or were oversold.
Palmer went on to con over 16,000 victims out of their savings. He also became involved in arms and drugs, amassing a fortune that included a yacht, helicopters, classic cars, a private Learjet and a French chateau. At one point, he was reportedly as rich as the Queen.
Image above shows Marnie and John celebrating with an All Gold chocolate Egg; Image credit: Alamy
In 2001, Palmer was convicted of masterminding “the largest time-share fraud on record” and jailed for eight years. Serving just half, he continued to operate scams from prison. It was later suggested Palmer had protection from high-ranking police officers, who delayed his arrest for years.
On his release in 2005, Palmer was declared bankrupt with £3.9m in debts – a major fall for a man once said to have the Midas touch – though it was rumoured he still had £300 million stashed away.
Palmer returned to Spain but was deported back to England and arrested again in 2007. After two years in jail, he bought a detached house in Brentwood, Essex. There, in 2015, a professional hitman tracked his movements. When Palmer stepped out of CCTV range, the gunman climbed a garden fence and shot him six times. Palmer, aged 64, collapsed and died.
The motive was likely the gold – most of it is still missing. It’s suspected Palmer kept a large portion hidden. Or perhaps he was about to inform on Brink’s-Mat associates in exchange for leniency – or even implicate Brian Reader, allegedly linked to the Hatton Garden job two months earlier. Others suspect a Russian mafia hit, or a cover-up involving corrupt police.
Since Palmer’s death, detectives have followed every lead, questioned associates, examined documents and offered a £100,000 reward. Yet his killer remains at large.
John ‘Goldfinger’ Palmer remains one of Britain’s most notorious criminals – a man whose life was shaped by greed, violence, and deception. His connection to Bath is a lesser-known chapter in a compelling crime saga – and a reminder that even the quietest places can hold deadly secrets… and hidden treasure.
The Gold BBC drama television series, a dramatisation of events around the 1983 Brink’s-Mat robbery and the decades-long chain of events that followed, is available on BBC iPlayer.
The Gold series 2, which follows the story of where the money went after the gold was stolen, starts at 9pm on BBC One on Sunday 8 June. Watch the trailer here.
