Secret History: Costa del Crime (C4):

The million package holidaymakers who headed for the Costa del Sol each year in the 1980s probably didn't realise they were mixing with crooks on the run having fun in the sun.

This gangsters' paradise in the heart of Europe became a safe haven after the extradition treaty was cancelled as Spain and Britain fell out over Gibraltar. Crooks did a runner to a country where they could live unnoticed on their ill-gotten gains.

For the gang that made off with £6m in unused banknotes in the 1983 Security Express robbery, it was the obvious place to go to launder dirty money by investing in property. Two of those who settled there, Freddie Foreman and Ronnie Knight, recalled those days for the programme.

Foreman was a friend of the Krays and known as The Undertaker for reasons I really don't want to know. Knight, best known as Barbara Windsor's husband, has always denied being in on the heist, but was used to take the money out of the country.

Their reign in Spain was something of a pain for our boys in blue, unable to bring them to justice. A photograph of the robbers sunning themselves on the Costas finally alerted the British press to a good story. If the game wasn't up, it certainly became more complicated for the Costa crooks, with Knight at the centre as reporters and photographers camped outside his villa.

There was a reminder of TV investigative reporter Roger Cook calling round to see the gang, and ending up in a punch-up. This was seen by eight million viewers back home, making the Costa crooks even more famous.

They thought they were safe. Knight got married in the full glare of publicity, as though sticking up two fingers to the rest of the world. Foreman ran a club where fellow felons could hang out.

This was all very glamorous and harmless, but there was a darker side. When the cash ran out, some looked for other money-spinning deals and found them in drug-running. Morocco was a short boat ride away and the Costa del Sol became an entry point for hashish.

Eventually, this proved too much for the Spanish authorities to tolerate and they cracked down. Lacking the power to deport anyone, they took the law into their own hands by bundling Foreman into a car and putting him on a plane back home.

They didn't even tell the British police, leaving the press to tip them off. Foreman was behind bars by the time a Spanish court ruled police had acted illegally.

Then, the gangland murder of one of the Great Train Robbers in his own back garden over a gone-wrong drug deal changed the whole atmosphere.

Knight, who'd run out of money, handed himself over to the News of the World for £45,000. They stage-managed his return to this country, where he thought he was so famous that no jury would ever convict him. He was wrong and was sentenced to seven years for handling stolen money.

After his departure, criminal activity on the Costas got a lot nastier. At one point, there were 12 killings in a fortnight - something you didn't read about in the holiday brochures.

Published: 30/05/2003