I live near to the Bank
of England's printworks operated by De La Rue. This is the paper
factory that produces all the bank notes for Britain. In fact, I
quite often jog around their car park as it's nice and flat which, in
my area of the country, is quite unusual.
Having cased the joint
regularly, I'd obviously like to find a way to get in there and grab a
box or two of crispy new £50 notes, but it's pretty much as secure as
Fort Knox. This was demonstrated to me yesterday as I took my car for
a service. As I passed near the printworks and was waiting at the
traffic lights, there was a commotion behind as police sirens started
wailing.
Has the bank vault been broken into? Is a spare box of cash coming my way?
No. It's the police escorting some cash off the premises.
Four
shiny new police cars were taking a grotty old lorry out of the
printworks and down the M11 to the Bank of England. Working in convoy,
the police shifted traffic out of the way and gave stern looks to one
and all.
What was particularly interesting is that they obviously
knew how the criminal mind works as two of the cop cars shot off to
block off the slip roads onto the M11 from the opposite direction.
This gave full security to the old cash lorry as no-one could get near
it without ramming a police vehicle out of the way.
Now, that I
know the time, operation and thinking behind these movements of course,
if you hear of a convoy of cash disappearing it's nothing to do with me
guv'nor. Honest :)
Chris M Skinner
Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog, TheFinanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank, and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand (as well as one of the best blogs), a FinTech Titan (Next Bank), one of the Fintech Leaders you need to follow (City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance), as well as one of the Top 40 most influential people in financial technology by the Wall Street Journal's Financial News. To learn more click here...