Chapter 4: Inside man

Detectives soon decided the robbers must have had help from someone inside. Tony Black's brother-in-law, Brian Robinson, was one of the gang. In December 1983 Black confessed and named him. Robinson and Micky McAvoy were arrested, and in December 1984 at the Old Bailey both were sentenced to 25 years for armed robbery. Black was sentenced to six years. Who planned the robbery was never established in court. The trial settled who had been in the warehouse that morning, but not where the gold had gone.

About the stories

Three Tonnes of Gold: the Stories tells the true story of the 1983 Brink's-Mat robbery in nine short chapters, each on its own page. Tap the right side for the next slide and the left side to go back, hold to pause, and use the button at the end of a chapter for the next one. Three parts are written live by AI and labelled: a read of your answers, the Case Desk and a what-if scene. The AI is told not to invent facts and can still make mistakes; if it is busy, a hand-written text appears instead and says so.

The facts were checked against pages we opened on 13 October 2026: Brink's-Mat robbery and Kenneth Noye (Wikipedia), The Brink's-Mat Robbery (World History Encyclopedia) and What Was the Brink's-Mat Robbery? (History Hit). People are named only for what courts decided or what is widely reported. Photos come from Wikimedia Commons under open licences and each slide says what it shows; no photo shows the robbery itself. Your answers stay in this browser tab, are cleared when you close it, and are sent nowhere except to the AI when you use an AI part. Spotted a mistake? Use the Contact page.

Pictures in this chapter

Part of Stories With Pictures, an Ink Horses site. Prefer a comic you play? Try the Case File version. Unofficial and independent; not connected with Brink's, the BBC or any company named in the story.

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