How We Robbed Banks | Crime Stories | @LADbible

there was one Bank who didn't give a toss for their customers they were told if a Armed robber comes in don't matter if there's customers there drop down behind the counter they can't shoot for a bulletproof screen what about the customers customers got to take their chances have you guys met before we go back a long way in the Eraser you know her high security prisons in the 90s obviously I I knew Razer when he was active you know he was one of the old school armed robbers that people like myself looked up to yeah I remember uh raya's um one of the younger lads who was a bit of a handful right here I remember hearing about you long before I met you in the prison system and um you know I first heard a right as a an amazing fighter um who had plenty of bottle and was uh you know was an up-and-comer I mean a lot of people were saying he's going to be like the next uh big thing in the crime world so yeah that was when I first met Ray if I was any good at it and I didn't keep getting cold yeah so my parents were Irish immigrants and um very very poor people we lived in poverty in the 60s really um when I tell my grandkids this they kind of looked me and say you're ancient greendo but to me I was born like 15 years after the second world war so all the bomb sites around London and that when we was growing up it was like it was like Adventure playgrounds everywhere when it my first actual nickname was um was it was a fit I bought a police they took me off the street at the age of 14 when I was playing Trump me and my mate and they beat and tortured Us in the back of a van broke my finger snapped my finger and made us admit to a load of crimes that we hadn't committed well it was like Fury similar to Razer you know there was not a lot of money to go around the worse thing about it was the particular part of it uh South London that I come from was known as Bandit country when it was right from where razor is right from where I grew up and saw Woolwich right about to Deptford and bowmancy and you had all the Premier League armed robbers in that area it was known as being Bandit country I fell into the ends of young sort of gang culture and peer pressure because I wasn't a tough kid and I say this and I'm quite open and honest about this I don't I wasn't this big hard tough kid even though my history might suggest otherwise through different things I've done in life regrettably but I had to learn that stuff and and and and and the the upbringing and the scars and becoming battle wild and happened over time when I was a kid I was [ __ ] scared of my own ghost I suppose my first real um crime that I set out to do was um was actually stealing a motorbike rolled out to Stratton police station about three in the morning launched a brick through the police station window and drove off so that was my first actual crime real crime I was getting into trouble much like Razer from from Once I left school from Once I was 16 17 and again uh very similar experiences to raise at a place at the time we had the what was called the SPG which was the special Patrol group there's a patrol our estate in a van full of police and they would you know they fit many people up on our estate where else they surround us up uh you know targeters and um yeah the progression into sort of like how the crime happened for me quite quickly when when we were 16 17 we used to steal high-powered cars and high-powered motorbikes and whatever else we was like a bit of a Adrenaline Junkies whatever whatever it was that was noticed by some of the more professional runners or whatever else and we would steal cars or whatever and they would give us a bit of money for the cars and we would know what they're being used for but we wouldn't you know we like they trusted us enough to know we could Supply the views and it just made sense to us to try and emulate and we had the we was nicking the high-powered cars at the time or whatever and well you know what we can go and do a robbery and we got a good chance of getting away on a motorbike or a car and that's how it was you know we we would uh use high-powered motorbikes stolen motorbikes stolen cars the thing is I I started committing um series on robberies at the age of 15. and my first obviously I had no um uh no experience of what to do but I'd seen a lot of films and I've seen you know locals who I knew who were at it and um so me until my pals planned this robbery on a record shop and it was just a nightmare from start to finish we we ended up stealing actually 10 pounds and an arm full of LPS from the Record Shop which was three pound Thirty each I think and you would think that having seen what you were able to steal at three pound for a for an armed robbery you know you'd lose sort of faith in it want to do something else but the other two yeah they they said oh this is not worth it but me I had got the buzz from doing it I've got the adrenaline that's that's the trouble with um armed robbery evolving over the years is also that the other side evolved as well and when the other side evolved you've then got to count what they do I'll give you an example back in the 50s people used to do robberies with a Kosh they pick up the wages from the bank on a Friday two geysers would be walking back with the wages you pull up in a car cost them on the head take the bag gone so then when security guards come in they um wore a crush out of it but they didn't have a visor on it so security so robbers instead of hit them on the end would spray him in the ice with ammonia or paint or whatever to temporarily blind them so they started wearing visors so what the rappers done then was carried spray paint so they just spray up the visor they couldn't see what was going on let them in the body a few times and run off with the box and that's how everything that comes out robbers have to find a counter for that if you're a professional criminal you've got to keep up to date on everything that's happening and make sure that you're able to counter it I'll give you another example that we counted at one stage a lot of the banks it was mainly the Midland Bank uh started having what they called a a safety lock between the two doors so you'd have two doors into the bank you'd have a foyer and then you'd have two doors there but when you came through those doors and those doors closed it locked so you could only get into that one um you could get into that one but if you try to get out they could lock it from behind the counter yeah so what we used to do was then carry a breeze Block in a holdall and as you went in just drop it down by the door in the center hold the door open so we could Rob the place and get out without them being able to lock the doors but that's what it's about uh professional crime you've got to keep up with everything that's going on and as they evolve you have to evolve and that's what happens and you know as well like we knew their policy on handing over money on Union policy on Banks and post offices as cruel and as selfish as it sounds at the time I had no fault for victims or no empathy or nothing that's that's not the case today may I add you know I have great remorse I think anyone who's lived that life does you know I wouldn't glamorize in any shape or form but we knew when they brought in for example the security screens that boom shut up remember they went up in a split second like that you would always make sure before you went in you would go in just after the secure cover and had done their delivery because you knew the safe would be open because they're on a Time lap didn't they and you would make sure that there is at least a customer in the premises because if there was a customer this side of the counter their policy was cooperate because they wouldn't want to put the customer at risk will it yeah if there was no customer in there and you ran in that the screens would go straight up or I know someone who obviously I won't say he went in one and and boom they and the whole place filled with smoke it was like that was another thing there but they wouldn't do that if there was a customer in the bank would they you know what I mean so we knew their policy and they would um they would comply that was the thing in some senses it made them uh seem to people like cars quite soft targets we know we could be in and out quick enough and we knew they would comply except one but there was one Bank um who didn't give a toss for their customers and nobody would Rob them if fair enough they got people to not Rob them but they were told if a armed robber comes in don't matter if there's customers there drop down behind the counter they can't shoot for a bulletproof screen what about the customers customers got to take their chances and that was the policy of bank they got less robberies than any other person they still got people attempting I mean I I've robbed about four of them and got away from tow with money and I had to directly you had to directly threaten the customers and I'm shouting over to them if you don't come up I'm going to put one in this geezer's leg and the customers are all there [ __ ] themselves and I'm going to because they'd then be on the counter and I'm counting the customers like as you can say now I'm not going to show you I'm just trying to get them up and in fact my favorite Bank was the Midland Bank no longer exists and they were called The Listening bank and they certainly were the listening I robbed some of their branches four or five times and they were always ready to hand over it was a great Bank and then when I got out of that I went to jail and unfortunately they closed them all down and it became the HSBC and that's now my bank on their bank at HSBC crazy unit the biggest jobs are normally the ones you've got away with right so um I will say the most I've ever taken out of a bank for example out of a Midland Bank funny enough was 48 000 pound in cash that's the most you get out of a bank but what you've got to bear in mind is this if people are robbing building societies and they're just doing the tools on the bank you're talking about five six between five and say 11 Grand 12 Grand which is a lovely bit of money if like there's three of you doing it and you're not working and that's your only income that's a good bit of dough what about Yuri what was your biggest one well I mean obviously I wouldn't go into detail I've had quite a few high value because I know us at a smaller period when I was younger where we robbed a few Jewelers and different bits of Bob's in in terms of monetary value it would be you know one particular one was probably close to half a million pound but we didn't see that sort of money and and and again another one which I can talk about that I was convicted of was a post office and I had homes about 400 000 but it was most of it was in stamps and tax disks and because we took everything because back then you these things were money well money like you didn't have uh ampr cameras or number plates now if I had a stolen tax disc and I stamped it and you put it in your car as far as I was concerned you were texting I think so yeah I had a box falls about three hundred thousand pounds worth of taxes and when I did actually get arrested for it they were more interested in that than anything because they knew obviously that was default in the state and found stamps and all that we had it doesn't really matter anyway because as a professional equipment what happens is we've added Thunderbirds loads of times the minute you get nicked they take everything yeah they take every penny you've got they take all your clothes in case they've used robberies it's just it's just [ __ ] tactics that the police use when you have to spend years away from your family and your children and your grandchildren in the stinking places weak classes prisons in this country it's a disgrace you know and when you're laying on a in a prison cell with two broken ribs covered in your own vomit with 12 years after serve it all becomes a bit you think yourself it wasn't worth it and it wasn't was it right you know all the money we've had over the years and it's never really been worth it not for the time you're spend in jail mate again like razor says in the face of any of it none of it was worth anything you can't put a price on your time you know you really can't you know you can't put a price of your time you know I paid some heavy prices emotionally physically and spiritually you know you know that long periods of prison especially high security prisons I mean I know the the median narrative whatever you all believe they're all holiday camps all playing PlayStation maybe they are in some open prisons but like Razer I mean we've served time together I've been in some dungeons segregation units special units what was your longest serve 13 years what about you know the longest sentence I've got was eight life sentences plus eight years concurrent and it all boiled down to one life sentence in the end and I ended up serving 12 years out of that um the biggest another big set I've got 19 years in 1989 I've got 26 years he got cut at 19. I've done 11 out of that I've done a seven I've done a four for sawing the bells off a shotgun it's just non-stop time in prison and whilst I was in prison you know prison changes you you turn into an emotionless animal I've witnessed murder in prison in prison I I've witnessed not not actually didn't actually witness the I've seen many violences but I've actually witnessed the door get opened in the morning woman prison officer scream run away and the one cell mates killed his just killed his cellmate in the night because they should never have been locked up together in the first place but because of overcrowding failures in the mental health State and whatever else where there's no they just lock them up you know smash a window in the town really should be in hospital I've nowhere though no results lock them up put them in prison lock them up with someone put them in the same cell as them like they're perfectly safe to be around and witness that witness suicides that's horrific you know I've witnessed someone in a dispersal system who slit his throat ear to ear very lucky to survive do you remember him yeah just horrific self-harm I've people have cut their ears off and all sorts like I think the worst the worst actual incident that I've seen was in Albany prison in 1989 and it was uh a guy from Deptford you know him anyway but it was a guy from depth and an argument with a lifer in the kitchen and you could do your own cooking yeah and uh what he done was he the guy threatened him with a potato peeler so my mate come first the heat can seem like he's gone down to the counting and bought three pound a lot for cooking took it back put it all in a big pot boiled it till it was bubbling and the geyser was in the toilet and there's only a half dollar in the toilet and he went out the way up with a pot and bumped straight over his head a boiling hot fat while he was in the toilet but what it was he came everyone knew it was going to happen and this guy was he was a Rastafarian and he came out the toilet and the scream was unbelievable it was like chilling and we all piled up around the toilet and he come out and it was smunk coming out of him his dreadlocks were falling out his skin was peeling he was going pink and he fell down and hit his head on the urinal and the screws come running in to sort him one of the screws turned him over and then vomited on him when he see the state of him but it was just a horrific thing and you know he got shipped there and he went to the hospital and he just managed to survive and the guy who've done it never got nicked um but there was a smell in that Wing every time you come off exercise for the next three or four weeks you could smell burning flesh when you came out of the wing despite the fact they had to have a specialist cleaner in to clean all the flesh that was on the floor when and why did you decide to give up the life the crime life well for me it was quite um I would say it was easy I was in whitemore prison in 2001. and um I'll come back from tea that night and I'd rather make mine and looked and saw a priest up at the end of the landing and when you see a priest or a rabbi or a vicar or a new man in prison and they're not in the church it's normally because someone's getting bad news and sure enough uh he told me my 19 year old son Joseph had died outside in mysterious circumstances and I was obviously devastated it was that that was the spur after all those years I thought they wouldn't let me go to my son's funeral they said I was too dangerous to go and I had too many criminal connections and they could break me out or whatever I told them I'd go down there on my own and come back on me and which I would have done as a matter of Honor but when they wouldn't let me go to my son's funeral and my son's daughter and I can't even Comfort my family and I'm sitting in a prison serving eight life sentence and walking around giving it Charlie big spuds yeah this is we've made it and I suddenly realized this is not we haven't made anything mate this is just a terrible life that you've been living and for the first time I stopped and looked at what I'd been doing and I was [ __ ] horrified and obviously I was in a bad way because my son had died and I decided to myself that I was going to look around for some sort of Rehabilitation and the only place I could find that in prison believe it or not was in a fairly unique prison in buckinghamshire called grendon which you have to volunteer for and you work on therapy about yourself psychotrauma all that sort of stuff for years five years I was Ray done it as well and you have to come to terms with what you've done you have to realize the victims you've left in your wake and the thing is you can't unring a bell once someone rings that Bell when you see what you've done it's very odd then to like because that's why we're saying earlier on about you don't give a toss about people when you're robbing you dehumanize them you turn them into cardboard cutouts so you're able to do what you're doing because if you've thought of every single person in a bank of rob banks which 30 people in every single person that bank was traumatized impose on people by bursting in their lives and waving firearms and threats and doing our best to be horrible bastards I mean you don't just walk away from that that's you know those people are suffering today when I never took none of that into account course I think I was a as I thought was [ __ ] Robin not didn't I you know all them years I thought was done a noble thing and I'm doing a a a sort of honorable crime I don't Rob old grannies of the Bingo winnings or sexually abused children but all the time I was missing the point I was just another scumbag criminal with a gun and once you realize that it's very hard to go back and do what you've done before my dad died while I was uh well I was about a year into that 13-year sentence I wasn't they wouldn't let me go to the funeral they said I was too much of a security risk because I don't really escape from prison you know prior to that quite a violent escape and for me you know I was just heading one way I got I got arrested again in prison for a violent assault against two prisoners um I was in segregation um in special care and control unit in in long line in prison you know I was at the end of the road two psychiatrists come to interview me because uh the different violent episodes in prison and uh said one signature from me one signature from him and you're off to Broadmoor and that's the reality because when you're in a high security prison there's nowhere left to go you're not going to be downgraded unless your behavior improves if your behavior is Big there's only one place they can send you if they decide look we can't be bothered with you going to the hospitals in Eurasia and that's pretty much how it was for me and it was a fantastic prison officer and always mention a love hurt a [ __ ] I believe she's dead now Cheryl she was a Welsh prison officer she came down to the segregation she took a liking to me on the wing and she come down to the segregation one day she said if I get you back on the wing you promise you'll behave yourself because she knew what what their plan was for me they was going to knock me off and send me to one of the hospitals I said sure I promise and so they offered me the therapeutic group and like I say like like Razer I say this eloquently because it means so much for me conscience becomes a fierce pursuer you know there's so much in my life I can't and never will talk about but when you've lived that life and you really have lived that life one day you wake up and it's bang it's you especially when you're in prison doing time there's a reason they call it time because if you versus your head how does it feel to talk about it now and kind of looking back at it all is it regret do you feel what is that for me definitely definitely because I have remorse I uh do have remorse remorse for victims you know when you've looked someone in the eye down the end of a gun you mean the act of armed robbery that image sort of it's like burned into your conscience you know I've seen it yeah and I've also had a victim statement read out in cult against me for a robbery that I committed and the particular person wasn't able to go back to work no less selfish I had no right to do that and that's why today you know I do so much I go above and beyond because it feels right you know I do a lot for victim Charities and things like that I give freely in my time I contribute I donate I build these things not for praise or or I don't even tell people why I do I do it because it feels right and I feel like I owe society that you know my past has become my greatest essay because what archers are doing now like a good selfies use it to good put into good use you know in in terms of Rehabilitation reform carrying a message you know all that stuff it's it's become very much an asset to me if I had my chance to live my life over again I wouldn't do none of it seriously I wouldn't it was never worth it for me so you finish a prison sentence you get out you think what am I good for nothing what did I learn in prison more crime let's commit more crime and then you're on this spiral this Merry-Go-Round like all through your life and then eventually when you step off it and realize what the real world is like it's a complete shock as what he says you know you can use your past and I do you know I use it same as Ray I talk to students or going to schools and I work for a prisoners newspaper but and your past is there and it becomes sort of part of you but I don't like to dwell on it I don't I honestly don't like talking about it um and that might sound funny because I've spoken I've made a living out of bleeding speaking about it but uh there comes a time when you think to yourself now you know I've been through all this so many times and it becomes you start getting depressed when you think about it again I asked myself this on this question could I go out and commit an armed robbery now I don't think I could no me neither I honestly don't believe I could I don't have it in me and when I look back at the damaged frightened young man I was when I was that way I actually feel quite sad I wish I could sit myself down and have a word with myself because I'm so far removed from who I once was that I don't believe I've got it in me today and even at that time I know this is going to sound strange to anybody watching this I don't believe I had it in me then I don't believe I had it in me then I was just operating factors against my control I felt like I was out of control I had no choice I was impulsive for I just done things and even afterwards I'd think why did I go there and I don't think I could do it today no I couldn't I've taken an assistant Governor hostage in a maximum security so everywhere I go I've got loads of prison offices around because they think I'm going to take another one right about six or ten man unlock ten man unlocked there you go

2022-12-09 19:43

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