Oh dear, the teenies working for some of the junior websites, have become all excited over an interview with Bernie which appeared in the British paper, The Independent on 25th April.

A journalist, a Brian Viner, asked Bernie if it was true that he had planned the criminal heist that has become known as 'The Great Train Robbery'. If someone asked you to confess to a crime which could get you thirty years banged up inside, would you confess? It was a daft question.

The background should be explained. In 1963 a mail train running from Glasgow to London was held up by someone changing the signal. On the train were many sacks of old banknotes, they were on their way to being burned. These notes were used and not numbered in sequence, which is the dream of every criminal. The total involved was £2,631,784 and, in today's money, that is fifty million pounds. It remains the biggest heist in history because it was in actual money; if you steal gold you have to fence it and all fences want their cut.

Most of the crooks involved in the train robbery were low level thugs. The gang leader, Bruce Reynolds, posed as a dealer in antiques. Reynolds was often to be seen with all the right passes at Goodwood. Reynolds knew people in motor racing on a social level. When people asked him what he did for a living, he replied he dealt in antiques, he did not say, 'I'm a thief posing as a dealer in antiques.' He was well turned out, drove an Aston Martin, and appeared to be what he claimed.

The other motor racing character was Roy James, nicknamed 'The Weasel'. James was a silversmith and a gifted one, he could make metal sing. It would have been 1962 when Roy James first came to my attention, I was in karting and he was splashed over the cover of one of the two British karting magazines. He was the hot thing in karting. Over the winter of 1962/3 he arrived at Motor Racing Developments with a brief case containing a lot of what Ron Tauranac describes as 'coin of the realm.'

Roy James was quick in his Brabham BT6, and he won races. I have seen it claimed that, up to late August he was the most successful driver in British racing, second being Jackie Stewart. It depends how you measure the wins. Roy James was in Formula Junior, but only in the UK, the really quick Brits were traipsing round Europe lifting money from the locals through the devious method of winning all the races and filling all the places.

Roy James was in his first season of racing cars, he did win races and he did make an impression. Come the Tourist Trophy Meeting at Goodwood in August, 1963, Roy James practised for the Formula Junior race on the Saturday and PC Plod arrived. Plod gave so much warning of his arrival that James was able to scarper.

His main, paying, profession was getaway driver. The police drove Ford Zephyrs so he stole Jaguars, the police are always a step behind, as is the FIA when it comes to cheating in motor racing. Roy favoured the Jaguar Mk II 3.4 litre, he thought it better balanced than the 3.8 and, as a thief, he had the choice. He was one of the two drivers at a payroll heist at Heathrow Airport in November 1962, the other driver was Micky Ball who left a careless fingerprint and was shut away, but kept his mouth closed.

Roy James bought his Brabham BT6 with his share of the Heathrow job, and some of the money from the heist was used to finance the train robbery. There was a farm to lease (the lawyer who did that was gaoled) and all but one of the vehicles were bought, not stolen. There was no getaway driver on the robbery, the money was handed down from the train in sacks by human chain and loaded on trucks and Land Rovers, the sheer physical size of the haul was huge.