Gangland UK

by Christopher Berry-Dee

  Such ground-probing radar searches are so non-evasive they could even have uncovered part-buried footprints left at the time Brodie went missing, so Barrie Simpson and his team carefully made shallow probe holes on a bank surrounding the quicksand which were sniffed in turn by the dogs.

  When nothing was found by lunchtime, the team moved to an area of woodland next to the fish farm entrance, where they looked for changes in the vegetation which would have indicated unnatural disturbance, and so might have suggested that something could have been buried underneath.

  ‘A burial will affect how vegetation grows,’ said Mr Simpson. ‘Sometimes it increases, sometimes it decreases.’

  The police found nothing, and today a £10,000 reward for information leading to the whereabouts of James Brodie remains uncollected. The reward, however, does not specify ‘dead or alive’. Anyone with any information was (and at the time of writing, is) asked to contact police on 0115 844 6994, or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

  By now, a joint investigation between the National Crime Squad and police professional standards department were tracking the Gunn gang’s movements. Even PC Charles Fletcher and PC Phil Parr were being watched by a covert team.

  When Colin Gunn was arrested, police found two A4 pieces of paper which he had absent-mindedly dumped in his mother’s waste bin in Raymede Drive on the Bestwood Estate. They contained police intelligence about Gunn himself and cars he was linked to. The paperwork had to be secretly removed from the bin by DCI Ian Waterfield to keep the inquiry under wraps. The items were a direct link between Gunn and his middleman, 33-year-old Jason Grocock. Crooked PC Fletcher had faxed intelligence reports from Radford Road Police Station to Grocock, then manager of Limeys discount clothes shop in Bridlesmith Gate, Nottingham. He then passed the inside intelligence to Gunn and others.

  Trainee detective Charles Fletcher, 25, and Phillip Parr, 40, later admitted at Birmingham Crown Court to separately disclosing data on serious inquiries, including the details of the murder investigation of Marian Bates, to the Gunns. Fletcher also admitted two charges of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

  Over a two-and-a-half year period, beginning in December 2002, Fletcher trawled police data bases to find information. He also sought information about the double murder of Joan and John Stirland. In return, the bent cop received discounts on designer suits from a Nottingham fashion store.

  Grocock was convicted of conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office and two further charges of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. He received three years’ imprisonment.

  40-year-old David Barrett was convicted of two charges of conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office and was sentenced to three years. Darren Peters, 38, and Javade Rashid, aged 40, were convicted of the same charge and were sentenced to four years and six months respectively, and a fifth person cannot be named for legal reasons.

  Chief Constable Green said, ‘When we put in place the operation to dismantle Gunn’s empire we wanted to get justice for every victim of the evil of Colin Gunn. We haven’t finished that quest for justice.’

  And in March 2008 Colin Gunn’s legal advisor indicated that his client’s own quest for justice was not yet over. It was reported that Gunn intended to appeal against his convctions on the basis that his conversations with lawyers while in jail may have been bugged.

  A Bestwood community leader, who does not want to be named, said, ‘A church article is where the Gunns got this Robin Hood reputation. They were once good guys, genuinely. But as time went on, they chose their paths, although even today the perception around here is that they are nice guys because they don’t cause, or want, any trouble on their doorstep.’

  As with the Krays in 1960s London, many residents say that the Gunns only hurt those who deserved it, but the truth is somewhat different. The reputation of Bestwood as a no-go for strangers has forced house prices down and it is populated by those who have been moved into council houses or cannot afford anywhere else.

  The community leader said, ‘The fear factor remains. A lot of people say he [Colin] would look after them. It’s how the IRA operated. Gunn made sure crime was low so he could go about his business undetected and without police being around. A lot of people regarded him as a sort of Robin Hood character but then most of them had no idea he was involved in such serious stuff as murder. They will be shocked to find out and think his reputation will change.

  ‘There is no doubt that he [Colin] is a nasty piece of work. The way he worked was that so much of the fear is fuelled by rumour and urban myth. There are rumours of people going missing. There have been rumours that Colin is coming out, that David has already been seen out and about. David is a different kettle of fish. You can at least talk to him. Colin has had a reputation for being a nutter… he hits you first then talks to you.

  ‘Everyone is waiting to see what happens now there is a vacuum and there are a couple of families on the estate who people are looking at. But the Gunns have long arms and are still running the place through their associates, fuelling the fear with rumours that they are coming out.’

  It is a very remote possibility that Colin Gunn will ever be released from prison. Since he was jailed, there has only been one fatal shooting in Nottingham – a result that has seen the city slip down the gun crime league. ‘Undoubtedly, it’s a safer place,’ says Mr Green, adding, ‘from the day they were arrested and taken off the streets, the city of Nottingham was transformed, and long may it remain so. I would think a fool would say gun crime is dead, but what the figures show, and what the feel of the city shows, is that it’s a very different place to what it was a few years ago.’

  So if we are to use any yardstick by which to measure the lives and crimes committed by the Gunn brothers, the ‘adventures’ of our legendary Robin Hood may be a good place to start, for most certainly the Gunns were not in the same league as their more ‘celebrated’ London counterparts, the Kray brothers.

  For the most part, the Gunns are a pair of intellectually-challenged common thugs. From a sink-estate background, perhaps they glimpsed the opportunity to enter ‘the Big Time’, when it became obvious that the Sheriff of Nottingham (Chief Constable Steve Green) was well and truly committed to dealing with the African-Caribbean – or ‘Yardie’ – crime problem that was overwhelming his city.

  There seems to be some confusion as to exactly when the Yardies arrived in the UK. The Yardie phenomenon was first noted in the late 1980s and their rise is linked to that of crack cocaine in which many trade. However, this pre-dates the event that gave them their name.

  ‘Yardie’ is a term stemming from the slang name given to occupants of government yards in Trenchtown, a neighbourhood in West Kingston, Jamaica. Trenchtown was originally built as a housing project following devastation caused by Hurricane Charlie in 1951. Each development was built around a central courtyard with communal cooking facilities. Due to the poverty endemic in the neighbourhood, crime and gang violence became rife, leading the occupants of Trenchtown to be in part stigmatised by the term ‘Yardie’. Today, in the UK, they drive top-of-the-range BMWs, flaunt designer gold ‘bling-bling’ jewellery and carry automatic guns as a weapon of choice. In terms of a reputation for ruthless violence, they could one day rival the Triads or Mafia.

  But if the Gunns thought they could even begin to emulate these ‘gangstas’, in terms of drug and arms dealing, as well as robbery, a lifestyle synonymous with violence – impulse shootings and gangland-style executions used to sort out internal squabbles – then they had to be living in cloud cuckoo land.

  To further debunk their pseudo Robin Hood image, the Gunns most certainly did not rob from the rich to give to the poor. To begin with, the investigation into the Gunns and their activities cost millions of pounds, all of which was provided courtesy of the taxpayer. For that matter, they hadn’t even had the intelligence to rip off the rich – theirs was not a world of international banking frauds, credit-card-clon
ing, international carring enterprises or links with Eastern European master criminals. In reality, the Gunns robbed, brutalised, dealt in drugs, threatened, extorted, bullied, corrupted, terrorised, tortured, murdered and conspired, all with the sole aim of filling their own wallets at the expense of others.

  And the seat of the Gunns’ empire? A rundown council house on the Bestwood Estate, Nottingham, with their communications centre only a short walk away… at their mum’s house.

  And how did the Gunns spend their ill-gotten gains? No Rolexes or Bentleys for them, but they could muster up a clapped-out old car or two, and drink themselves stupid in a few local pubs – one of which has since been demolished in remembrance of Colin’s patronage.

  Perhaps Colin Gunn’s crew could bear comparison with Robin’s Merry Men? Unfortunately not – they turned out to be a bunch of semi-illiterate hoodies, who would ‘grass’ up their own grandmothers to save their own skins. Two crooked cops, one of whom sold his soul for measly discounts on cheap suits. It should also be remembered that Robin’s legendary band of men managed to live in hiding undetected in Sherwood Forest, leaving the Sheriff exasperated at every turn. Colin Gunn, however, intellectually challenged as he was, managed to leave a critical paper trail that led the Sheriff’s men to his own front door.

  Levity aside, the Gunns have caused mayhem within the confines of the City of Nottingham. Sure, they plundered and murdered and, in some respects, they ‘took care of business’ on their own doorstep. They committed crimes which the city would rather forget – indeed, my many requests for the local newspaper and the local police to contribute to this chapter have been ignored. One may wonder why.

  At the end of the day, it is the people of Nottinghamshire who have had to foot the bill for its law enforcement agency’s efforts to bring the Gunns to justice. It has been a million-pound expenditure, one that has been funded by decent, law-abiding, citizens. And one view prevailing among many in the area is that if the police had adopted a proactive approach – akin to the old Bobbies on the beat – to dealing with local crime when the problem first arose, instead of consigning finite financial and manpower resources to form filling and office filing, the problems caused by the Gunn brothers may never have escalated to such destructive proportions.

  In retrospect, the lack of inner-city, proactive, three-strikes-and-you’re-out policing and hardline law enforcement was a major contributory factor in giving the Gunn brothers licence to continue as they did. And some connected with the Gunns’ history in Nottingham believe that the police must bear some responsibility in the murders perpetrated or sanctioned by the Gunns. It also beggars belief that two Nottinghamshire police officers and two BT workers were part of this criminal enterprise.

  The vacuum left by the Gunns on the Bestwood Estate will be filled by other wannabe gangsters. The police, with one eye on their ever-diminishing budget, and the other eye focused on looking after more affluent areas – the better addresses always receive a faster response time – may inevitably allow the lessons from Brothers Gunn to slip conveniently into local folklore.

  Robin Hood? Somehow, during the writing of this chapter, I have kind of warmed to the guy… tights and all. Do Colin Gunn and his cronies bear comparison?

  No comparison at all.

  3

  Goldfinger – Mr Kenneth James Noye

  ‘I took the knife and did him. Old Bill or not, he had no fucking business being here.’

  KENNY NOYE TO DC FINLAYSON ON HIS ARREST FOR STABBING DC JOHN FORDHAM

  At the time of writing, Kenneth James Noye, Britain’s most infamous villain, is 60. The essential difference between him and other gangland figures such as the Krays and the Richardsons is that he had the vision and the means to infiltrate legitimate business.

  And the comparisons between Colin Gunn and Kenny Noye are as chalk and cheese – an untaxed, beaten-up Skoda or a top-of-the-list Land Rover, with which Kenny Noye, as we shall soon learn, was uniquely linked. Kenny had class by the truckload; the Gunns had none.

  Noye would regularly drink at the Hilltop Hotel near his home where the then aristocracy of gangland, the Krays and the Richardsons, the Haywards, Frankie Frazer and others would gather to quaff Dom Perignon and watch the cabaret. The Gunns mixed with juvenile chavs, watched the occasional porn video, urinating the proceeds of their crimes against a pub wall.

  Kenneth Noye Esquire dealt in millions of pounds of gold bullion, while Mr Gunn, according to his police arrest paperwork, wore a few items of over-the-top ‘yellow metal jewellery on his person’.

  Kenny Noye built up a solid reputation as a ‘fence’ who could shift anything, and he was an ‘armourer’, who could provide guns through his pal Sidney Wink. And while Colin Gunn lived on a rundown estate, Kenneth Noye owned a 20-acre private estate in West Kingsdown, a civil parish and a small village near Sevenoaks, Kent. Colin did own some property – a garden shed. He did not have a villa overseas, as did Kenny, who owned a hilltop mansion in Altanterra, Spain.

  Colin Gunn was married to Lisa Unwin, upon whom he showered food vouchers, milk tokens, and allowed her the use of a beat-up old car. Mr Noye, on the other hand, bought his wife, Brenda, a squash club, and lived what only can be described as the lifestyle of the nouveau riche – sporting expensive clothes, jewellery and limos – and had several ‘tabloid-stunner’ female companions on the go. These included his exotic South American mistress, with her equally exotic name – Mina Al Taiba.

  Kenny Noye was slim, well-proportioned and handsome. Colin Gunn was not what you would call good-looking. He was shaven-headed, with a phsyique not built for speed, except in short, breathless bursts when running from the law. The former, one might introduce to one’s daughter; the latter, you would hide the dear girl in a cellar, probably for many years.

  Mr Gunn used low-life thugs to do his dirty work, while Mr Noye used a worldwide web of heavy-hitters to do his bidding. Gunn didn’t have a bank account, while Noye had more banking options than the Inland Revenue.

  The doorbell of Kenny’s Hollywood Cottage, in West Kingsdown, Kent, triggered a stereo blasting out Shirley Bassey singing the theme tune to the James Bond film Goldfinger. The Gunns favoured hammer-on-the-door-til-you-get-a-response’.

  In 1997, after being arrested by Scotland Yard for receiving stolen goods, Kenney joined a Freemason’s lodge which had a large number of police officers among the Brotherhood. He mixed with ‘premier league’ villains such as John ‘Little Legs’ Lloyd, and the legendary Freddie Foreman. He had enough folding money to be able to fly to Miami with £50,000 to invest in land. One deal alone resulted in a net profit for Noye and his associates of £600,000.

  But the real money came from gold smuggled in from Africa, Kuwait and Brazil. Between 1982–84, Kenny ran smuggling operations worth a staggering £35 million, and his own cut was just under £4.5 million.

  Kenny Noye stabbed an undercover cop to death. He was acquitted of this ‘murder’ because DC John Fordham, wearing a balaclava and clothing reminiscent of an extra in Mission Impossible, was in the dead of night effectively trespassing, without even a warrant to enter Noye’s Kent estate. A ‘startled’ Kenneth Noye allegedly feared for his life.

  Freemason Kenney Noye also stabbed a young man to death following a road-rage incident on the M25. And for this offence, he is serving a life term in a supermax prison facility ‘somewhere in England’, according to the Home Office. Actually, he is at HMP Full Sutton, near York.

  Yet, strangely, both criminals now share a few things in common. They both used corrupt police officers. They are now post-conviction brothers-in-arms, serving life sentences in prison cells, and their chances of release are minimal.

  Neither of them could be described as contemporary Robin Hoods and, essentially, whatever course their criminal career paths may have followed, and however rich or pathetic their lifestyles, they have both been reduced to the same outcome. They went into prison wearing smart suits, and they’ll most probably be released wear
ing the wooden variety. In a nutshell, they are both fucked!

  Yet if one were to thrust both men on to a reality TV show and judge them for their antisocial talents – on, say, Crim Idol – Kenny would be voted back for the finals. He would have survived the first auditions because of his panache, cheeky smile and cold-blooded attitude. He would have survived ‘boot camp’; his accomplishments – already established in the Brinks Mat robbery – easily outstripping any that a panel of judges could have hoped to have completed in several lifetimes.

  Colin Gunn? A pathetic wannabe by comparison. If Col had got as far as appearing before the judges in the first place, they would have sent him packing, and before the studio doors had closed, his mother would have stormed back in, protesting vehemently that Col would go on to do great things. History proves that he didn’t.

  *

  1947 was the year of the first known sightings of UFOs by Kenneth Arnold, whose attention – while flying over Washington – was drawn to nine luminous disks in the form of saucers. It was then that he uttered the immortal words: ‘God dang! What the holy shit was that?’ Shortly afterwards, on Wednesday, 2 July, it is said that a UFO crashed near Roswell, New Mexico, disgorging strange little men over a small area, the incident giving rise to worldwide panic that we were about to be invaded by aliens.

  Still up in the air – albeit at an altitude of a mere 70 feet – this time over California, designer Howard Hughes performed the maiden flight of the Spruce Goose, the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built. On 2 November 1947, after a series of taxi tests with Hughes at the controls with co-pilot Dave Grant and a crew of two flight engineers, accompanied by nine invited guests from the press corps, the Hercules lifted off from the waters off Long Beach. The aircraft singularly distinguished itself by lumbering along for just under a mile before it landed – never to fly again.