When Crime Pays

The Great Train Robber who never got caught…

- Hannah Davies, Ian Macewan

Nearly 60 years on, the Great Train Robbery still captures the nation’s imagination. The notorious heist took place on 8 August 1963, when a Royal Mail express train was stopped in Buckinghamshire and 16 robbers unloaded sacks containing £2.6million in cash – around £51million in today’s money.

The gang members were eventually caught, charged and jailed, including Buster Edwards, Ronnie Biggs and Bruce Reynolds. One man got away with it, however – Danny Pembroke, a career criminal who’d been robbing trains for years.