Brussels heist similar to Great Train Robbery

university-of-canterbury

Wed Feb 20 2013 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)

Brussels heist similar to Great Train Robbery

Wednesday, 20 February 2013, 12:55 pm
Press Release: University of Canterbury

Brussels heist similar to Great Train Robbery, UC criminologist says

February 20, 2013

The Brussels airport diamond heist is similar to England’s Great Train Robbery of 1963, University of Canterbury (UC) criminologist Professor Greg Newbold said today.

Robbers dressed as police and armed with machineguns yesterday stole 120 parcels of diamonds worth about $nz60 million from the runway of Brussels Airport.

Two vehicles carrying eight men drove up to a van belonging to security firm Brinks, which had just finished loading the diamonds into a Swiss passenger plane. The raid took less than five minutes. Police are hunting for the robbers.
UC Professor Greg Newbold said the raid looked like being a one-off event carried out by a group of highly organised and sophisticated criminals.

``It is somewhat reminiscent of England’s Great Train Robbery where 128 bags of cash worth over two million pounds were stolen from a train near London.

``In both cases, a degree of inside information would have been necessary to plan and carry out the robberies. As with the Great Train Robbery, police will focus on who knew what as they try to unravel the mystery of how security systems were breached or subverted.

``Because events such as this are isolated, it probably won’t impact much on ordinary citizens but will undoubtedly lead to a review of international security and intelligence procedures,’’ Professor Newbold said.

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading

a.supporter:hover {background:#EC4438!important;} @media screen and (max-width: 480px) { #byline-block div.byline-block {padding-right:16px;}}

Using Scoop for work?

Scoop is free for personal use, but you’ll need a licence for work use. This is part of our Ethical Paywall and how we fund Scoop. Join today with plans starting from less than $3 per week, plus gain access to exclusive Pro features.

Join Pro Individual Find out more

Find more from University of Canterbury on InfoPages.