Three men currently on trial at Southwark Crown Court on serious charges include Peacock Gym boss Paul "Pongo" Bowers. Police spent nine months secretly filming their headquarters, the Peacock Gym, owned by 37-year-old Bowers of North Woolwich.
The gang went on to rob £1.1m at Gatwick Airport using a specially converted security lookalike van and bogus uniforms and passes. But flying squad officers swooped as they drove off.
The men had conned a security guard into opening a vault where the money was kept and even into helping them load the cash.
All three men deny conspiracy to obtain property by deception. Bowers also denies two counts of conspiracy to obtain property by deception, two counts of conspiracy to handle stolen goods and conspiracy to steal.
The court heard the gang also raided docks at Thamesport, Felixstowe and Grangemouth in Scotland, stealing lorry loads of vodka, adhesive tape, food blenders and stereos.
Peacock boss up on million pound robbery...
A gym used by boxing superstars was the base for a £500,000 vodka heist, a court heard yesterday.
Paul 'Pongo' Bowers and other "organised and sophisticated" criminals used the Peacock Gym in London's East End as a base for spectacular crimes, it was claimed.
The Peacock Gang are accused of stealing £1.1million from Gatwick Airport and a string of raids across Britain.
Working from the club, owned by the Bowers family, they also stole vodka from a warehouse at Grangemouth docks, it is claimed.
But they were unaware that the Flying Squad had bugged the gym once frequented by boxers such as Lennox Lewis and Prince Naseem Hamed.
Bowers, 37, of London, and Lewis Nicholl, 55, of Maidstone, Kent, deny conspiracy charges.
Alleged Gatwick 'insider' Keith Rayment, 29, of Eastbourne, Sussex, pleads not guilty to one similar charge.
Prosecutors claimed they planned the raid on Gatwick for several months and used a fake Brinks security van to get away with over a million pounds in cash.
"They did not get too far. Flying Squad officers intercepted that van," said prosector Timothy Barnes.
The trial continues.
Paul 'Pongo' Bowers and other "organised and sophisticated" criminals used the Peacock Gym in London's East End as a base for spectacular crimes, it was claimed.
The Peacock Gang are accused of stealing £1.1million from Gatwick Airport and a string of raids across Britain.
Working from the club, owned by the Bowers family, they also stole vodka from a warehouse at Grangemouth docks, it is claimed.
But they were unaware that the Flying Squad had bugged the gym once frequented by boxers such as Lennox Lewis and Prince Naseem Hamed.
Bowers, 37, of London, and Lewis Nicholl, 55, of Maidstone, Kent, deny conspiracy charges.
Alleged Gatwick 'insider' Keith Rayment, 29, of Eastbourne, Sussex, pleads not guilty to one similar charge.
Prosecutors claimed they planned the raid on Gatwick for several months and used a fake Brinks security van to get away with over a million pounds in cash.
"They did not get too far. Flying Squad officers intercepted that van," said prosector Timothy Barnes.
The trial continues.