A genius robbery when determination surpasses the state. The Bank of Britain robbery.

On Sunday, 19/12, 2004, Kevin McCarlin, the branch manager of Northern Bank in Northern Ireland, was sitting at home with his wife watching TV. Suddenly, there was a knock on the door, and when he opened it, he was surprised by two men in police uniforms who told him: "Unfortunately, there has been an accident involving one of your family members, and you need to come with us to identify the body." But this was a lie; they were not police officers at all.

As soon as he stepped outside, one of them put a gun to Kevin’s head, and the other grabbed his wife and pinned her by the knee. At the same time, just 20 miles away, a second family was being held hostage. Chris, an employee at the same bank, stood helpless as he saw his family threatened at gunpoint.

They told them: "The instructions are simple: obey us, or your families will die within the next 24 hours." Kevin and Chris, under the orders of the gang, had to do things they never imagined they would do in their lives. They were required to go to work, smile at their colleagues, and participate in the biggest bank robbery in the history of the United Kingdom. They were the ones who would open the vault from which £26.5 million would disappear forever. No alarm would go off, no evidence left behind, and to this day, after 20 years, the robbers have never been caught and the money has never been recovered.

Today, we will talk about the Northern Bank robbery, or as the media called it, “The Perfect Crime.”


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At the beginning, Chris Ward, an employee at Northern Bank, was sitting at home in West Belfast watching a match with his parents, brother, and girlfriend, when suddenly there was a knock on the door. Kevin went to open it and was surprised by a man standing at the entrance with a smile who said to him: "How are you, Chris? I came to talk to you about Celtic Football Club." Celtic was Chris’s favorite team, and he was an active member of the supporters’ club. Usually, people came to his house asking about tickets or events, so this seemed normal to him. But this time, the man’s visit was the biggest mistake of his life. He allowed the man to enter, and as soon as he did, two others who were hiding in the shadows behind the door followed him in.

They entered the house, pulled out their weapons, and pointed them at the family. They said to him: "Chris, we are not here to talk about football; we are here to talk about your work in the cash department at Northern Bank."

Chris froze, not knowing how to respond. They told him: "We know who you are and everything about you. We will take you with us for 24 hours, and your family will remain held hostage at home during this period."

The first thing they asked was very simple: "Go and get your official work suit, leave the house, get into the car parked outside, don’t talk or look around, just follow instructions."

Chris did as he was told, found the car ready with the door open waiting for him. They asked him to lie down on the back seat, and the driver was silent, his hand on the steering wheel and the other holding a gun.

Chris got in the back, the car moved, and disappeared. Chris’s family remained hostages of the gang.


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Elsewhere, 20 miles away, Kevin McCarlin, the Northern Bank manager, was having tea with his wife Karen and watching TV. There was a knock on the door, and in front of him were two men dressed in Northern Ireland police uniforms, one holding a list of names including Kevin’s and his wife’s. They told him: "There has been an accident involving one of your family members, and you must come with us immediately to identify the body." But as mentioned before, this was a lie.

As Kevin stepped outside, one of them put a gun to his head, and the other grabbed his wife and pinned her to the ground. Karen tried to resist and scream, but a third man intervened and threatened them with a weapon. They took Kevin and his wife to the guest room and forced them to stand against the wall, pointing their guns at them.

They told him: "Forget your job at the bank and don’t think emotionally about your colleagues there. The only thing you should think about now is your family."

They left the room, cleaned everything, erased their traces, and left no fingerprints.

About an hour later, they told Karen she would be taken elsewhere and that a woman would take care of her there. They covered her eyes with adhesive tape instead of a blindfold.

Kevin stood helplessly watching as his wife was dragged away, forced into a car, and disappeared.


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Kevin did not know that Chris had been taken and that their families were being held hostage at the same time.

After taking Karen, they took Kevin to the same place where Chris was held. Kevin arrived to find Chris tied up with plastic cables in the kitchen. They untied Chris and took him to the living room with Kevin.

They told them: "You have a simple choice: cooperate with us and your families will remain safe; make a mistake or hesitate, and the consequences will be deadly."

The matter was simple: they had to rob Northern Bank. The gang gave them instructions, and everything had to be executed exactly as told; any mistake would cost their families dearly.

Kevin realized the magnitude of the disaster, and that this was not just a robbery, but hostages were at the heart of the operation.


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The term "Tiger Kidnap" is known as a criminal method in Ireland during the Troubles, which lasted about 30 years, where an important person is kidnapped and forced to commit a crime on behalf of the gang.

After the 1998 peace agreement, these crimes disappeared, but gangs were forced to invent clever ways to protect their money.


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Northern Bank was equipped with a strong security system, where the main vault required two keys to open, and the keys were held by Kevin and Chris.

That night, they waited for instructions. A gang member gave them two phones: one for Chris marked with the letter “C,” and the other for Kevin marked with “K.” Each phone was restricted to one number only.

Chris asked for a beer, and they agreed, but no one knows why to this day.


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One gang member explained the plan to them in detail, with a continuous sound of cleaning in the background during the explanation.

The plan was very detailed, and the gang’s instructions were strict: any mistake meant death for the family.


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The basic plan:

They had to go to work and act as if everything was normal.

Take one million pounds from the vault in a bag provided by the gang.

Place the bag at the bus stop, then return to the bank, activate the alarm system, and leave.


They had to stay on the phone line with the gang because the other steps were very secret.


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At 11:30 AM, Kevin was driving and Chris was sitting next to him going to the bank.

Despite the pressure of the Christmas season, the day was very different.

At 4:30 PM, Kevin told employees there was a problem with the balances and started a comprehensive recount with Chris.

After closing time, the bank was empty except for Kevin, Chris, and two security guards.


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At exactly 5 PM, the operation began.

They went down to the underground cash center, used their keys to open the big door, and entered a room full of money: stacks of new and old banknotes, euros, US dollars, all piled up.

They had to replace the metal seals on the boxes with fake white seals.

Kevin knew blind spots in the cash center where cameras did not reach.

They started packing the bag with one million pounds in 50 and 1-pound notes.


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After 15 minutes, Chris carried the bag and left the bank, went to the bus stop, and placed it there.

After about three minutes, a man came and took the bag without talking to Chris.

Chris returned to the bank, and the instructions were that the operation was not finished yet.


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They were asked to pack more money and had to understand how money entered and exited the bank.

There was a special entrance called the “Polyembi Passage,” the only gate through which banknotes entered.

Only one company, “Securra,” was allowed to use this passage to transport money.


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The plan was for a white van to come and take the boxes with replaced seals out of the bank as if they were paper waste.

But entering the van through the Polyembi Passage required official ID cards.

Kevin told them this was impossible; they replied: "You are the bank manager and earn a respectable salary, handle it."


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They returned to the bank and found 24 boxes, each holding between £500,000 and £1 million.

They started moving the boxes on four carts, each carrying six boxes.

They passed by the surveillance room which contained 27 screens recording everything.

Kevin contacted Billy, the security guard, and told him a van would come to take the waste.


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Billy agreed to open the back gate.

The van arrived, and two men got out and started carrying the boxes.

24 boxes were loaded, totaling £18.5 million, and the process took only 7 minutes.


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But the robbery was not over yet.

They were asked to pack the remaining money in black plastic bags.

This time, the money was mixed: new and used banknotes from euros and US dollars.

The remaining amount was £5.1 million.


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The van returned again, carried the black bags, and entered the back passage.

Billy was present and did not inspect or check the bags.


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After finishing loading all the money, they were asked to activate the alarm and leave as if nothing had happened.

They got in their cars and returned home to check on their families.


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Kevin called the police after the operation and confessed his involvement in the robbery.

The surprise was that the police had known about the white van they had spotted and had informed the traffic police, but the van left before the police arrived.


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A comprehensive police search campaign began, and several people were arrested in Belfast, Dublin, and Cork.

But no conclusive evidence linking anyone to the robbery was found.


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Kevin McCarlin himself spent a year in jail accused of participation, but after 12 months, nothing was proven against him, and he was released.

Likewise, Chris, who was just an employee, was arrested several times but no charges were proven.


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The robbery remains unsolved to this day, and the money has not been recovered.

Chris and Kevin were found alive, but the families’ suffering continued.


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This was not an ordinary robbery; it was an insult to the security apparatus.

£26.5 million disappeared, families held hostage, employees forced to cooperate, and the robbers vanished without a trace.

The case remains open to this day.


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Could this perfect crime be solved someday? Or are there secrets we do not know?


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This is the story of the Northern Bank robbery, the biggest bank robbery in the history of Great Britain.