“PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER 1 “ by Wensley Clarkson

ISBN 1-85782-305-2

REVIEW BY SALLY RAMAGE

“PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER 1” is the story of Kenneth Noye, now sixty years of age. Wensley Clark’s book about Kenneth Noye is divided into three parts, the first being on Noye’s background history, the second part on his crimes and the third part on his capture and conviction.

As is often the case with career criminals, this career criminal began acquiring his criminal records with petty crimes and even at a young age (at page 25, the author states that Noye bought a Ford Cortina car and a scooter at age 18, yet none of his friends knew of the source of his ‘earnings’) he had become a ‘fencer’ and kept a double-barrelled shotgun in his car. Kenneth Noye graduated to drug dealing. Then he cleverly ingratiated himself among freemasons, which gave him access to police officers and businesspersons. His crimes include theft, firearms offences, conspiracy, ATM bank card machine fraud, armed robbery, drug dealing and murder.

As he progressed up his criminal career ladder, Noye became very security conscious, the book tell us.

After the incredible Brinks Mat gold bullion robbery of millions of pounds (sterling) worth of gold, he was under police surveillance and then killed a police detective who was in the course of his duty of surveillance of Noye and was in Noye’s gardens when he was fatally wounded.Noye was acquitted of this murder on the grounds of self defence.

However, in May 1987, he was found guilty of conspiracy to handle stolen goods and conspiracy to avoid the paying of Value Added Tax. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison (even in prison, Kenneth Noye continued his criminal activities and he controlled an organised drug dealing operation from behind prison bars) in 1986 but he was released from prison in 1994.

In 2000, Kenneth Noye, represented by barrister Mr. di Stefano, was convicted of committing a 1996 road rage murder of Stephen Cameron. It was the dogged determination of the police, whistleblowers, and the scrupulous examination of evidence that brought this successful conviction.

On the subject of organised criminals, the Kenneth Noye case illustrates how the organised gang involved in the gold bullion robbery all hailed from one small area near Kent. It illustrates that organised criminals are ruthless and use murder when they think it necessary. Organised criminals are cunning, corrupting, corrupt, and avaricious. Kenneth Noye is one of the top names of the United Kingdom’s criminal underworld. Noye the career criminal believed that he was impregnable to forces of the law. He was brazen and violent. The saying goes that ‘a leopard does not change its spots’ . All his criminal accomplices were also male. The mostly male, violent criminal fraternity has not changed much over the years.

As a final comment, beyond the scope of this book, Noye is at present challenging the decision by the Criminal Cases Review Commission for not referring his case to the Appeal Court. Presumably, he is contesting police collaborative testimony, as it is widely known that courts in England and Wales are willing to willing to accept the collaborative testimony of two or more police officers as being both reliable and fair, whilst refusing to accept collaborative testimony from civilian witnesses.

This book is a great read. It gives a good perspective of organised crime, focussing on Kenneth Noye, someone who killed twice, as far as is known.