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The millions
of dollars in cash present each settling day had attracted the attention of
criminals.
Several gangs,
including one led by the notorious Edward "Jockey"
Smith, had
conducted preliminary checks on the feasibility of committing the robbery but
the job had always appeared too daunting.
One man,
Raymond "Chuck" Bennett, had the
dash, brains and imagination to consider the whole matter as a serious
proposition.
Those
who knew him said he was a master strategist with a meticulous eye for
detail.
According
to celebrity criminal Mark "Chopper"
Read, Bennett was in a class of his own.
"He
was a master planner and one of the Australian underworld's foremost bank
robbers," Read said.
At the time of
planning what was to be Victoria's biggest ever heist, Bennett was sitting in a
jail cell on the Isle of Wight.
Late in 1975,
he took advantage of pre-release leave and flew to Australia to case the
Victoria Club.
After
accomplishing his mission, he jumped on a plane and returned to England and
completed his sentence, content in the knowledge that when he was a free man he
could turn his attention to the job others had just talked about.
When he
returned to Australia, Bennett quickly went about recruiting a team of nine.
Police have
said the group was possibly the best gang of armed robbers ever assembled in
Australia and that they had specialised in "commando-type raids".
"They
copied the methods of an English group called the Wembley Gang which had used
similar commando tactic," former Consorting Squad boss Paul Delanis told
author Malcolm Brown.
Though the
gang Bennett recruited has never been positively identified it is believed that
one of the key members was Ian Revell Carroll, a man with the imagination to
carry out a big job.
Another
apparent member was Anthony Paul McNamara.
Bennett organised "laundering" and called upon a close friend, Norman
Lee, a dim sim maker, for help in at least that regard.
Police later said that Bennett and
Lee "were like brothers".
There was another man, jailed
at the time, who received his share of the haul.
Most of the
gang were 'known to police' but one of them, described as a 'time and motion
expert' was unknown to detectives.
He lived in a
northwestern suburb and had been part of a planning team for major armed
robberies in Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.
Bennett's team allegedly also
included
Brian O'Callaghan,
Laurie Pendergast, Vincent Mikkelson and two brothers.
Bennett took
the group to a secret training camp in rural Victoria.
He behaved
like a football coach, giving instruction to his team that for three months they
were to swear off the booze and keep away from women knowing that loose lips
could destroy the job before it started.
He counselled
his men to remain calm, be quiet and, when they got the loot, not to start
throwing it around.
The robbery
was to take place on April 20,
1976.
Bennett
chose the date because it was the post
Easter settling day and bookmakers would
be settling up after not one but three
race meetings.
As
to minimise the gang's chances of
failure, Bennett organised a virtual
dress rehearsal during the Easter
long-weekend.
According to
information later given to police, the gang went into the deserted premises of
the club over the holiday and practised what they were going to do. His
plan was to use a team of six to storm the club, backed by at least three
others. On
the day, 46 bookies were to go to the Victorian Club to settle. Cash
from 116 bookmakers was delivered by a Mayne Nickless armoured car. Just
after midday a man arrived at the club, saying he was there to fix the
refrigerator in the bar on the second floor.
He stood watch
at a peephole and at 12.07pm, after the last of the cashboxes had been delivered, threw
open a door at the right of the bar, permitting entry to five balaclava clad
accomplices carrying pistols and automatic weapons.
The six wore
balaclavas and were heavily armed. They
ordered 31 people to lie on the floor. One
guard went to grab his .38 revolver but a gang member saw him and bashed im to
the floor with the butt of a submachine gun. One
of the bandits told the guard his head
would be blown off if he tried again. He was the only person injured in the
raid.
From behind
the bar a gunman covered the room's other occupants with a silencer-equipped
pistol.
The gang
ripped out two phones. They
used bolt cutters to open the eight Mayne Nickless metal cash boxes, which
contained up to 118 calico bags, all filled with untraceable bank notes. They
put the bags into three large mail sacks, used the cash boxes to jam the service
lift, then moved quickly down the back stairs and into the lunchtime traffic of
Queen Street.
The robbers
left virtually no clues and none of the victims could identify them.
But,
just as Bennett had planned, the operation was slick, nobody panicked and it was
over in 11 minutes. How
much money was grabbed was to remain known only to the gang members themselves. It
could have been as much as $15 million. The
bookmakers remained tight-lipped. Many
people believed the amount said to have been stolen was grossly understated
because the bulk of the cash had not been documented, in order for the
bookmakers to avoid turnover tax.
Some believe the men rented an office in the same building and
hid the money there while making a fake getaway in a van.
The same tactics Bennett had
devised were reportedly used in huge robberies in France and America.
International police intelligence
indicated the jobs were almost carbon copies of the Great Bookie Robbery.
Within days of the robbery,
the gang began to put their money laundering plans into operation.
Some of the money was invested in
real estate in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria.
The gang had a female expert
based in Sydney to handle the complex property investments.
Dennis
William Smith is rumoured to have laundered some of the proceeds from the
robbery.
It
was after that robbery that Smith,
and long-time partner, Kerry Ashford, opened the sleazy Aussie Bar in the
Philippines capital Manila, an offshore haven for major criminals from Sydney
and Melbourne.
Police investigators have shown
some of the money went to Manilla via Canada.
Bennett also appeared to have
helped out his family.
His mother collapsed in the
waiting room of a Melbourne solicitor and when ambulance officers arrived they
cut off her clothes to attempt external heart massage.
They found $90,000 concealed in
her clothing.
Police
turned their attention to Norman
Lee.
They formed the view that he had been part of the
gang and that he had afterwards been a money launderer.
They decided that the way to get the robbers was
to follow the money trail.
Bennett had anticipated the police move on Lee
but was confident, believing Lee would honour his promise to look after the
money.
He knew Lee was staunch and would rather go to
jail than tell police anything.
Police charged Lee, then 28, with the armed
robbery of $1,387,540 from the Victorian Club.
Police alleged that he once took $60,000 in cash
to his solicitor's office inside a plastic garbage bag.
He was also charged with receiving $124,000 from
the robbery.
Police alleged he laundered $110,000 through his
solicitor's trust account.
Lee had allegedly used the money to buy equipment
for his factory and renovate his home.
Lee did not panic.
Even when arrested he stuck to Bennett's plan and
did not say a word and went as far as refusing to give police his name.
Detectives got his safe from his office and took
it to the quadrangle inside the Russell Street police complex.
They were looking for cash or incriminating
paperwork.
They asked Lee for the keys. He just looked
blankly back at them.
They were forced to get a safe expert to cut it
open for them. It was empty.
Purely out of principal, Lee had refused to
cooperate with the police and open it, even though there was no evidence inside
which could incriminate him.
Police were
never able to dredge up sufficient evidence and Lee was acquitted in Melbourne
Magistrate's Court in late 1976.
The magistrate said that while the
money might have come from illegal activity, it was impossible to say it came
from the Great Bookie Robbery.
None of the others were ever
convicted
and not a single cent of the money was ever recovered.
There are many
theories on who was involved, and some police even believed that the
perpetrators had inside help.
After the robbery tensions
mounted with other criminals, and apparently some police, keen to recover the
stolen millions.
Particular animosity had grown
between Bennett's team and painter
and docker brothers, Les and Brian Kane.
During the robbery a boxing trainer
and former league footballer,
Ambrose Palmer, had been referred to by name by one of the robbers.
It was
believed Palmer recognised the bandit's voice.
Ambrose apparently kept the mans
identity to himself for sometime but eventually let his name slip to one of the Kane
brothers.
A group of Sydney criminals known as
the "Toecutters" also started making inquiries.
They were an infamous group which
used to torture armed robbers who were known to have done big jobs and to steal
their money.
Bennett's name started being bandied
around, and to the Toecutters he meant trouble.
They decided to leave and his men
alone - Bennett would never be stood over and no amount of money was worth what
would happen if they tangled with him.
At a Richmond hotel in mid-1978
Vince Mikkelson, refused a drink from Les
Kane.
A brawl resulted and Les
had an ear almost bitten off.
On October 19,
1978, the fiery Les
Kane was shot dead at his Wantirna home. His wife Judy was
pushed away by three masked men with machine guns. She
and the rest of the young family were then forced at gun point to listen from
another room while Kane was pumped full of lead in the bathroom. He
was bundled into a distinctive pink Ford Futura and never seen
again. Some
say Kane's remains were put through Norman Lee's
Dim Sim factory. Bennett,
Mikkelsen and Prendergast were charged with the murder.
The famous Les Kane
murder trial featured Colin
Lovitt QC.
The trio were
acquitted.
Bennett was
shot dead at the Melbourne Magistrates' Court in November 1979 while Lee
was killed by police in 1992
during a heist at Melbourne Airport.
On July 16, 1981, Mikkelson's
brother-in-law, Norman McLeod, was shot dead as he sat in his car outside his
home in Coolaroo. The car had been owned by Mikkelson. Police believe Mikkelson
had been the intended victim.
Laurie Pendergast left Melbourne for
several years.
He returned in 1985 only to disappear again, this time
forever.
Ian Carroll went on to become one of
the best planners of armed robberies in Australia.
He would plan the jobs and
then send a "kit" to the location. Each kit would contain hand guns
and heavy calibre weapons for each crew member.
The kits also contained plans,
disguises, bandages, sutures, pain killers, antibiotics - in case one of the
team was shot - and even magnetic strip signs to disguise the bandits' vehicles.
He was shot dead in an argument in
the backyard of his Mt Martha safe house in 1983, a killing which has never been
solved.
Anthony McNamara took to drugs and
died of a drug overdose in Easey Street, Collingwood in 1990. Some believe he
was murdered with a heroin hotshot.
The two brothers suspected of being
involved went on to organise their own stick-ups. One was later jailed for 15
years.
The "time and motion man"
moved to Sydney and was later convicted for his part in a railway payroll grab.
He served his time and vanished from public view.
Dennis
Smith returned from Manila and drove a Rolls Royce and wore flashy gold
jewellery.
He was eventually arrested by the
NCA and sentenced to 11 years jail for drug offences.
Lee's lawyer Phillip Dunn, QC,
revealed the details of the crime in the mid-1990s, including the identities of
all those involved.
As no-one was ever jailed or convicted,
the Great Bookie Robbery remains technically an unsolved crime.
In 1986 a miniseries of three 60
minute episodes was released depicting the robbery.
Lee participated in the
production as a consultant, and even used his own residence in Verity Street,
Richmond as the shooting location for the house of one of the gang.
He was
still living there at the time of his death.
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