TV criminals' easy pickings

It is the ultimate test of a building's security - five former criminal masterminds are challenged to pull off a perfect theft at one of London's most secure galleries. The group of reformed thieves join forces to "steal" a £50,000 painting for a TV documentary.

In Channel 4's The Heist, they plan to penetrate state-of-the-art security at the Business Design Centre in Islington and remove The View From The Bandstand by Andrew Gifford - described by critics as a modern masterpiece.

Each of the ex-criminals was once notorious in a certain field before going straight - an armed robber, jewellery thief, gangster, extortionist and internet hacker.

Meeting in dimly-lit rooms above the pubs of N1, the five hatch a plan to dodge surveillance at the London Art Fair and make off with the celebrated painting. They must defy advanced CCTV equipment, 24-hour security patrols and the building's " impregnable" steel roof to access the ? 40million of art inside.

Peter Clenshaw, head of security at the Business Design Centre, is confident the gang will fail to get past his security team. He said: "It's a bit like Fort Knox. It's a tough job. If they can get away with it, good on them. I'm quietly confident we will catch them."

But he is proved wrong as The Heist becomes a success.

At first the men discuss classic styles of robbery including the smash-and-grab, the brazen approach and the inside job. Peter Scott, a former "gentleman cat-burglar" who has stolen art, jewellery and furs worth ?4million, says: "Between us, we've got the expertise to take [the painting] out in a pram." And that is pretty much what they do.

On a series of covert missions to the art fair, the gangsters spot a window that is not alarmed and falls in a CCTV blind spot. At 5am on the third morning of the four-day event, they scale the wall with a ladder and send Arno Funke, a retired extortionist from Berlin, into the building. Moments later he emerges, masterpiece in hand, and the theft is complete.

After the mock burglary Mr Clenshaw conceded: "I was 95 per cent confident that they wouldn't get away with it and they proved me wrong. They did very 'well'." The Business Design Centre has now reviewed its CCTV coverage and boarded up the controversial window.

The Heist's producer, David Glover, said: "We've always loved the Ealing comedies about heists, such as The Ladykillers. It occurred to us that it might be possible to do something like that for real, to assemble our own criminal gang - just like Sir Alec Guinness in The Lavender Hill Mob - and set them some kind of challenge."

But the programme is not a "how-to" guide for wannabe burglars. A spokeswoman said: "Clearly, we don't show people how to commit a heist - it's not that transparent. They are fantasy scenarios that couldn't be repeated. The objects stolen couldn't be sold on - it would be very difficult to extract a ransom for this kind of object. These are crimes it isn't worth committing these days.

"The series is more about looking at the psychology of the criminal mind, rather than the mechanics of the crime itself, and we hope it also demystifies that movie-style image of organised crime."