Every day was like you won the lottery.
Even now, sometimes I look back and I think,
“How did we get away with this?”
[The 2 Million Jewellery Heist]
My friends and I went on for a number of years
without getting caught.
We was living a lavish lifestyle.
The money that we made over the years,
put it this way, if I won the lottery,
it still wouldn’t be enough.
It was a drug.
The kind of people we were defrauding were the super rich—
Saudi princes,
American directors,
to anyone.
The jewelry heist,
how it came about, in Vanity Fair it said that
the Sultan of Brunei had been to a shop in Beverly Hills called Bijan.
At that time, the Prince of Brunei was the richest man in the world,
and I thought, “Wow, this is it.
We’re going to ring up the jewelry shop and let them know.
We’re going to be the prince.”
We looked into what type of people may go shopping there,
realized it’s appointment only,
so we thought, “OK, we’re going to have to get them to come to London.”
If we paid for everything, who’d say no to that?
On a big job like this,
you don’t want to show your face.
That was the big issue.
One of my best friends over the years, I rang him up.
I said, “Look, I’ve got a favour. I need you to dress smart.”
The jewelry people were at the hotel.
Everything was paid for on different credit cards.
The only thing that wasn’t paid for was the jewelry.
My friend had been picked up from the limousine,
they’ve drove to the hotel.
Just imagine it, one limousine, two, three.
I think he was in the third or fourth one.
There were seven limousines,
a bodyguard, who’s doing his job.
I’ve told my friend, “Don’t show your face.
Tell him to go and collect the jewelry.”
He’s gone over and asked if the prince can see the parcel.
He wants a view in private at the Dorchester.
He gets the bag, passes it to my friend, and said to him,
“Right. OK, tell the driver to drive off.”
Next day, when I met my co-defendant, I got the bag off him,
got to a secure location,
I opened this parcel.
Oh my God.
I’ll tell you now, it was unreal.
The sparkles, the gold,
you know, we’re talking the best of the best.
Over the weeks of conversations with these guys, we said to them,
“Listen, if it’s for the prince, it’s got to be the best of the best.”
And I’ll tell you now, they didn’t disappoint.
It can be so lucrative, but people always get caught.
So where it went wrong was the prince, my friend,
when he was in the limousine, his phone dies.
He borrows the chauffeur’s phone,
he rang one of us on their personal number.
That was a link.
The second thing, which was the main thing,
which sometimes I lose sleep over,
one of my co-defendants, who I told,
“Do not buy a mobile phone from the shops.
Go to the markets, go somewhere with no cameras,”
He’s gone into the Woolworths which is round the corner from my house.
He’s on camera.
Not only is he on camera,
he was given a piece of jewelry, that was his cut.
When they raided his house,
he’s got a newspaper cutting of the heist on the wall.
He gets caught red-handed with my other co-defendant, the prince.
I said, “Listen, tell him to take the rap, and he’ll be looked after.”
But you don’t know how someone’s going to react.
He could be your brother,
but sometimes when the **** hits the fan and you’re in a cell,
people react differently.
Some people have got a set of balls, and some haven’t.
But these two didn’t.
There’s no way they’re going to take it,
accept responsibility.
So the moment I was going to get arrested,
my only concern was, “What the hell is my family going to think?”
For me, family is a massive, massive thing.
When I went into prison 20 years ago,
my daughter was just literally born, and that changed me.
Prison was a really hard experience.
I did 18 months.
You see things in there. You have to grow up quick.
As time goes by, I’ve forgiven them.
Life goes on.
And I mean, to be honest with you,
one of them, I’ve seen him around,
and I used to look at him and give him a dirty look.
Now I just think, “You know what? No worries.”
It takes a big man to forgive someone
when we could have got away with the money.
But to be honest, who says we didn’t get away with the money?