They think it's haul over...

It was the mystery that gripped the nation in the run-up to a golden summer of English football... now a new twist has emerged in the theft of the World Cup trophy in 1966.

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The son of a lawyer at the heart of the case claims detectives cut a deal with thieves to get it back.

Frank Baldwin, whose dad Freddie represented the thieves, believes the scandal could have brought down Harold Wilson's government.

And he said: "I think my father rescued the World Cup in time for it to be presented at the finals.

"If they hadn't got it back, it could have brought the government down because people had lost faith in it.

"They were a laughing stock and the cup was stolen on their watch. The theft was actually so easy it made the police a laughing stock as well."

The Jules Rimet Trophy, famously lifted by Bobby Moore at Wembley, was stolen from a stamp exhibition in Westminster on March 20, 1966 — just 11 days before a General Election.

It was discovered missing by John McLarens, a 20-year-old jobbing actor who had starred as an extra in Monty Python and was working as a security guard at the Methodist Central Hall.

We tracked him down to his home in Ottawa, Canada, where he emigrated soon after to work as a long-distance lorry driver.

John, now 80, said: "The metal plates on the doors had been unscrewed but it had been chained on the outside so all they had to do was unscrew eight screws and it just dropped, eight bloody screws."

The 14in gold-plated trophy of the winged goddess Nike had been loaned to stamp company Stanley Gibbons for the exhibition. It was closed that Sunday but the hall was open and John was one of four guards on duty.