The Heist That Shocked Mayfair
In October 1974, a daring robbery at the Bank of America's Mayfair branch would become recorded as the world's largest bank heist, planned from a simple park shelter in Berkeley Square. The mastermind behind this audacious crime was Frank Maple, a figure whose legend would eventually inspire the character portrayed by Ray Winstone in the British crime film Sexy Beast.
The inside man was Stuart Buckley, a 26-year-old electrician who had been working at the bank for just three months after being released from a nine-month prison sentence. Bank officials remained unaware of his criminal background, and he quickly gained their trust, obtaining access to all London branches and most of the keys.
Buckley used his position to thoroughly case the Davies Street vault in Mayfair, photographing locks and alarm systems while measuring vault door thickness and documenting every security detail. His meticulous planning would prove crucial to the robbery's initial success.
The Seventeen-Hour Vigil
In one of the most remarkable aspects of the heist, Buckley spent seventeen gruelling hours wedged in the false ceiling above the bank vault, armed with nothing more than a pocket telescope, pen and paper, and a child's potty. His patience was finally rewarded when he peered through a spy hole and watched the manager open the vault just feet below him, allowing him to record the lock combination.
This came after previous failed attempts to drill through the vault lock. Buckley later described what should have been "the sweetest job ever," but the operation quickly began to unravel due to an unexpected mistake.
William Gear, one of the gang members and a bookmaker by trade, received a parking ticket after leaving his car on a yellow line during the raid. When Gear rushed to pay the fine the next day while stashing his loot, he alerted police suspicions and was arrested two days later.
Justice Served and Evaded
The investigation soon led detectives to suspect Buckley as the inside man. After his arrest, he provided a comprehensive 75-page statement that helped convict seven gang members, who received combined sentences totalling more than 100 years.
Judge Alan King-Hamilton handed down the longest sentences to those considered ringleaders. Safe-cracker Leonard Wilde, known as "The King of the Twilers" for his lock-picking skills, received 23 years, while Peter Colson, a 32-year-old used car dealer, was jailed for 21 years. Buckley received a seven-year sentence for his cooperation.
The judge also issued criminal bankruptcy orders for £500,000 against both Wilde and Colson. However, £7.5 million of the stolen money - equivalent to £100 million today - was never recovered, and its whereabouts remain one of Britain's greatest criminal mysteries.
Judge King-Hamilton identified Frank Maple as the mastermind behind the operation, describing him as a tall, grey-haired South London villain who drove fast cars and lived in luxury Spanish villas. Maple had abandoned his wife Sheila in their Kingston-Upon-Thames home and was known to frequent the Costa del Sol lifestyle that would later be immortalised in Sexy Beast.
International Manhunt and Final Disappearance
Maple was eventually arrested in Greece in 1977 at a fashionable Athens hotel, wanted not only for the Bank of America robbery but also for stealing £300,000 worth of jewellery from a London shop. He was extradited to Austria, where he served three years for a major jewellery theft at an exclusive ski resort.
When Maple finally returned to the UK and appeared at the Old Bailey in 1982 to face charges for the Bank of America heist, he walked free after Buckley refused to give evidence against him, reportedly fearing for his life.
The criminal's freedom was short-lived. A year later, in 1983, the 44-year-old Maple was accused of being part of a gang that kidnapped wealthy British financier Winston Skelley and his French wife Joelle from their luxury apartment in the tax haven of Andorra.
Armed with a long-barrelled pistol, the gangsters pinned Mrs Skelley against a wall while threatening her husband. The couple were held in a five-star Marbella hotel and forced to sign away their £160,000 luxury 160ft yacht and Rolls-Royce.
When the Skelleys finally escaped, only four of the criminals were caught. Maple and notorious villain Mickey "The Pimpernel" Green were among those who evaded capture, beginning Maple's final disappearance from public view.
Green, who had switched from bank robberies to the drugs trade after an 18-year sentence, would elude police worldwide for decades before dying of cancer in southern Spain in 2020. But Maple, who would be 86 if still alive today, has completely vanished along with the missing £100 million, leaving behind one of Britain's most enduring criminal legends.
