Mail Train Robbers Still At Large

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30206, 10 August 1963, Page 11

Mail Train Robbers Still At Large

(N.Z.P.A -Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, August 9. Detectives all over Britain were today searching for the gang who yesterday carried out the nation’s most daring train robbery and escaped with more than £2 million. The Postmaster-General, Mr Reginald Bevins, said in London that the robbery’ might have been an inside job, and that ideas for tighter security were under consideration.

Detective - superintendent M. Fewtrell, head of the Buckinghamshire C.I.D. said it was “obviously a brilliantly planned operation.”

Rewards of £35,000 have been offered, £25.000 of it put up by Hart and Company, loss adjusters, on the instructions of the National Provincial Bank and the British Linen Bank, in Scotland. The other £lO.OOO is offered by the Post Office. A spokesman for the insurance adjusters said the National Provincial Bank alone had lost at least £1.064,000. The National Commercial Bank of Edinburgh was estimated to have lost £320,000. Three other banks Midland, Lloyds and'Westminster —all reported losses in the train robbery. A Lloyds spokesman said: “What we lost was negligible.” A Midland Bank statement today said their losses were “around £500,000." The bank offered a reward of £25,000. Mr Bevins said the numbers of the bank notes carried on the train—the Glas-gow-to-London mail —were not recorded. Many of them were on their way to be destroyed. This robbery was the first in the 150 years of the Travelling Post Office. People would be compensated “to a limited extent,’’ because £2O was the maximum compensation for the loss of a registered package

He did not think the security measures taken after the las. big train robbery 11 years ago were slack. Most of the men on the Travelling Post Office carried weapons. Still in Hospital

The train driver, Mr Jack Mills, who was coshed in the raid, is still in the Royal Buckinghamshire Hospital suffering from concussion. In London, a massive manhunt was being headed today by Scotland Yard’s Flying Squad Every officer was checking known crooks or “interviewing” their "snouts” (underworld contacts) for clues to the identity of the gang. Detective - Superintendent G. E. McArthur, promoted to the rank only a few weeks ago. is leading the hunt. The "Daily Mail” said Scotland Yard had known “for weeks” that a mail train was to be robbed, somewhere in Buckinghamshire, yet today's huge consignment of banknotes was allowed to travel without a special security guard. The newspaper said: "Six weeks ago at 2 a m the Flying Squad received a ’phone call from a detective-ser-gent at Biggleswade. Bedfordshire. He asked for some squad officers to come down immediately as he had some important information. “Two cars containing eight officers went to Biggleswade There they heard how three Scotsmen had come to the station to warn the police of a 'big mail raid' to come. “The officer tape-recorded the conversation and this tape

was handed to the Yard officers who recognised the voices of the informers.” The newspaper continued: “The information was passed to the G.P.O. security staff. “A full investigation was carried out and extra security guards were used for some time but nothing happened." Mr Bevins, at a London press conference tonight, said: “I obviously feel uncomfortable in my position about this raid. "There were the normal security arrangements on this train. These trains have been running for years. "There is obviously a case for dealing with these (bank) notes (for disposal) in such a way that they could net be used again ” Protection For Guards

No-one on the mail train was armed, the “Daily Express” said. Mr Bevins, on this point, said:

“I shall ask Scotland Yard about the possibility of arming security guards on these trains.’’

Rut he added: “Can you imagine what would happen in such a mail train if gunmen and guards waged a bloody battle?" On the Post Office reward offer of £lO.OOO, he said: *'l think it will not be long before our offer will bring some result ”

The “Daily Sketch” in a leading article said the money stolen was a "gift” to some audacious master-criminal. The newspaper said private firms moving wages about the country had defeated bandits by using armoured cars with trained guards. “Yet British Railways and the Post Office happily shift a seven-figure fortune the length of Britain in an ordinary red railway waggon. It

was, as some audacious master-criminal realised, a gift,” the newspaper said. The gang, dressed in boiler suits and masked, waited for the train outside Cheddington shortly after 3 a.m. They were armed and they had already cut most of the telephone lines in the district They used a glove to cover

a green railway “Go” signal and lit up the red “Stop" light with a battery connexion. They had even altered a signal further down the line to amber so the train would slow up. As the train came to a halt, the gang went into action, uncoupled the diesel engine and front two coaches and forced the crew to drive it a mile further down the track to a bridge.