Gotcha!: The Untold Story of Britain's Biggest Cash Robbery

by Peter Wilton, Pete Sawyer, Peter Wilton

On Easter Monday 1983 armed robbers got into the supposedly impregnable Security Express depot in Shoreditch, neatly capturing the guards and holding them hostage. They hauled away 5 tons of cash, worth £6 million then (£26 million in today's currency). The gang made no mistakes and left behind not a single clue. Det. Supt Peter Wilton was the man in charge of the investigation. He spent years tracking the culprits, playing a ruthless cat and mouse game that led him to some of London's most notorious villains. John Knight and his brother Ronnie were well-known faces, hard men who kept to the East End code. They were riding high when John Knight and his team executed the perfect robbery, and Ronnie helped launder the cash. They almost got away with it... As gripping as any thriller, Gotcha! combines the Knights' and Wilton's stories to graphically recreate the robbery, from the adrenaline-fuelled raid to the long police search, from the high life on the Costa del Sol to interrogation, betrayal and arrest.

468 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 23, 2011

Reviews

[Nathan Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book will absolutely grab you in it's opening chapters. It puts you right in the shoes of the guards taken as hostage during the robbery. It plays out like any good crime thriller movie/book/show. After this, when the robbers and money dissipate, and the police follow 3 steps behind, the book slows right down.

This is fine if you're invested in the story, crime generally, the hunt of the investigation and the lives of criminals who are now very very rich. You know they get captured, there's no twists, this is the story of how beginning meets end. The chapters are short enough that I feel it never lingers too long on one part of the case or one experience of the robber before it transports you to another part of the mystery going on concurrently.

The ending, the picture of the authors (two of the robbers and the detective) together and the existence of the very book (a collaboration of them all) provides a very satisfying conclusion. It feels very fair play and gentleman's agreement-ish. It almost smacks of romantic crime, when a sense of honour and code permeated through the actors of it on both sides.

If you like crime, you'll most likely like this story, it's certainly not a dull one.

4/5

[darren salmon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Police robbers money sun sea and prison

A total page turner a true crime book old school . Nerves money power Witt funny sad around great book .

[Phil Andrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great page-turning thriller! Leads you through the crime step by step, the chase, the arrests, trial and the aftermath. What’s more it’s absolutely true! Also starring Barbara Windsor!

[John Morton · Rating 4 out of 5]

very enjoyable