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Bank Robbers Steal Worthless £50m

by Flexo on February 25, 2006

in Consumer

You’ve probably heard about the Great Tornbridge Robbery, in which £50 million (about US$85 million) was heisted from a bank in the United Kingdom last Tuesday. That’s a large sum of cash to have around; in fact, it’s so large, it might as well be Monopoly money. While the story has sparked discussions of what one might do with a vast pile like what was stolen, the robbers may not be able to do much.

According to a money laundering expert cited by CNN, the robbers have three options: stash it, try to spend it, or launder it. Spending it would be difficult. You can’t just go to a car dealer with tens of thousands in cash and expect to buy a car. There are rules put in place to protect the seller from money laundering.

The money would have to be broken into smaller sums and distributed in order to be more likely to evade detectives. Even so, getting away with the job is going to be extremely difficult. Last week, a woman tried to open an account
in southeast London with just a few thousands of pounds in cash. Whether or not she has anything to do with the heist, she has now been taken into custody as a suspect.

While £50 million is a lot of money to have, when you can’t use the money for anything, it has no value.

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Flexo, the owner and creator of Consumerism Commentary, has been blogging and writing for the internet since 1995 and has been building online communities since 1991. Find out more about him and follow him on Twitter.

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  • Tonbridge Robbery....one thing British bank staff are trained to death on is detecting Money Laundering.

    Is it the same in the US?
  • I get a chuckle every time I think about these 10 guys sitting around the perimeter of a room with $85 million sitting in the middle of the floor, looking at each other and thinking, "now what?"

    It reminds of "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner":
    "Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink."

    Of course right now they're probably still at the stage of trying to figure out how to knock off their cohorts (or, alternately, how to avoid getting knocked off).
  • jim
    I'll take a worthless $85M any day... :)
  • So because they have $85 million it is worthless. Let's think out the logic here:

    If they had stolen $1 million, they would have about $1 million.

    Because they stole an additional $84 million, they now have less than $1 million?

    Uhm... No. It makes for a fun story, but these people were smart enough to pull off the largest heist in british history. Lets give them some credit for being able to extract at least half: $42 million out of their $84.

    Nevertheless, talk about diminishing returns to scale.
  • george.hardwicke
    Dear Sir,

    I am a personal accountant of George Hardwicke, who recently came upon $85 million due to a personal windfall. Due to some misunderstandings with the British Exchequer and Scotland Yard, Mr. Hardwicke requires that the monies be repatriated to your country. I seek your partnership in assisting Mr. Hardwicke with this transaction.

    For your efforts, Mr. Hardwicke is prepared to offer you the generous sums of 30%, or $25.5 million. To facilitate the transaction, I will require from you only your bank account number. Please provide this to me posthaste and I will initiate the transfer of $85 million to your account forthwith.

    ...
  • jim
    They make it sound like they have to launder all $85m in one shot... heck, I can launder a few grand every week and be perfectly content. Plus, don't you think there are "services" out there that can launder money for a fee? Of course there are.
  • "George,"

    Very amusing. :-)
  • jim
    Who's "george"? :)
  • I was thinking exactly the same thing when i heard it on tv. how the hell are they going to dispose of the money. they'll probably have to bury it and leave it for several years or try to smuggle it abroad.

    i think they'll get caught pretty soon. someone's bound to get sloppy.
  • RS
    Sure would be fun to try to spend that much money. Reminds me of that movie Brewsters Millions where Richard Prior has to spend a certain amount of money in a specific way.

    They could just use it for a lot of small things such as groceries and clothes...stuff that you just pay cash for.
  • Curios
    $85 Million in toilet paper and toothpaste? Sounds like a fun Friday night to me.
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