Eureka! … Since 1981

Eureka! Classics | The Day the Bookies Got Fleeced!

This is the story of one of the most daring and dazzling robberies in modern history. There are few people who like a flutter who will not be familiar with the phrase ‘The Great Bookie Robbery’. In the way that the ‘Great Train Robbery’ caught the imagination of the public in the UK, this headline grabbing heist entered immediately into Australian crime folklore alongside Ned Kelly …this is the story of the day the bookies got fleeced!

It was a robbery that excited the world and brought unsolicited acclaim from the notorious Ronnie Biggs. It was a robbery so daring, so clean, that it captured the imagination of law-abiding Australians, and compliments from the victims themselves. But unlike the ‘Great Train Robbery’, the perpetrators have never been caught, and the stolen cash never recovered.

The story began in Parkhurst Prison, England. Here Mike Power (John Bach), a convicted felon, conceived a plan for a robbery that would take place on the other side of the world in Australia. His well organised gang stole between $6 million and $12 million from the Victorian Club. An intricately planned and perfectly executed crime, that was all over in the space of just 11 minutes. The men, Raymond Bennett, Ian Carroll, Laurence Prendergast, Brian and Leslie Kane and Norman Lee, rented an office in the same building and hid the money there while making a fake getaway in a van.

The only member of the gang to be charged was Norman Lee; he was subsequently acquitted. Later, Lee was killed by police while taking part in a heist at Melbourne Airport. The story came out and the true identities of those involved were exposed when Lee’s lawyer revealed the details of the crime. This mini series is based on that story. However the names were changed to protect the ‘not so’ innocent as Lee actually participated in the production as a consultant, and even used his own residence as the shooting location for the house of one of the gang. Lee was still living there at the time of his death.

The Great Bookie Robbery ranks alongside Ocean’s Eleven, The Italian Job, Rififi and Heat as one of the best ‘heist’ stories on film – what’s more – it’s a TRUE STORY!