‘I was called the UK’s most feared robber – however there’s one crime I remorse’

An old-school bank robber who was banged up with the Kray Twins has described the one shooting he wishes he had never done.

Ronnie Field was a contemporary of the Krays, and has been described – to his disgust – as “the UK’s most feared bank robber.”

Ronnie, 77, admits that he was violent with other criminals, but stresses that he never set out to hurt innocent bystanders. He told podcaster Liam Galvin: “Armed robbers never went out to shoot people, they went out to get the money.”

READ MORE: Inside ‘Britain’s roughest pub’ where Ronnie Kray shot gangland rival

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He might have fired his shotgun at a ceiling in order to scare bank or post office staff and make sure they handed over the loot, but that was the limit. “You never walk in anywhere and shoot anyone, never in a million years,” he continued. “If you do you’re a rank amateur.”

But, Ronnie admits he broke his own rule once – simply because he had been misinformed about the security measures at a clothing factory where he had gone to snatch the payroll.

“We steamed into this place up in Leeds,” Ronnie recalled. “I was told the door was steel, and if I shot the lock it should go.

“I got a pump-action shotgun loaded with number fours – which are quite big balls – and the first shot the bleeding door fell to pieces. All the shot went through and left a big hole.

“There were screams and shouting and I saw people rolling about. I had shot five women, I always regretted that.” Ronnie says that while the women were wounded, they all survived the incident.

Nevertheless, he has gone on record as saying the women “didn’t deserve it”. “They weren’t like us,” he continued. “If one of us gets shot, it’s the name of the game.”

After that heist, Ronnie was arrested – nabbed because a keen-eyed lad had spotted the gang’s getaway car and note down the licence-plate. He was handed a 12-year jail term for conspiracy to rob, robbery, aggravated burglary, two counts of carrying a firearm with intent and four counts of assault with intent to rob.

It was one of three jail terms he served during his long criminal career. He describes being greeted personally by Reggie Kray when he arrived at Parkhurst, spending time in the prison garden with Charles Bronson, and having his life saved by Dave Courtney after suffering a heart attack during a prison fight.

The Krays made his first prison experience “very easy,” but he admits they were scary, unpredictable characters. “People didn’t like the twins, because you didn’t you didn’t know how you stood with them,” he continued.

“I liked them because whatever they did didn’t involve me – not for a while anyway – and they made my entrance into Parkhurst very easy.”

Ronnie had a rougher time when he was in Dartmoor, but a guard took pity on him there and offered him some work in the prison garden, where he met notorious lag Charles Bronson. He continued: “He used to just do his own thing. He used to pick up whatever tools he needed – they liked to know who had the sharp tools – and he was fantastic. He was never any trouble, he’d just get his tools me and off he’d go to work.”

Ronnie also knew the Krays’ older brother Charlie well and was arrested alongside him as a part of a £39million cocaine sting. While he freely admits his other crimes, Ronnie insists those accusations were unjust.

Free now, and having just published a book about his tumultuous life, Ronnie’s life might have ended behind bars if it hadn’t been for his friend Dave Courtney.

He explained: “We was having our usual weekly tear-up with the screws and I went over, I’d had a heart attack in the middle of it all. Of course no one’s taking any notice of a geezer on the floor they just think he’s been chinned or something. But Dave knew something was wrong with me.”

Courtney tried to shield Ronnie with his body as the prison officers were lashing out with their batons. He continued: “He put himself on top of me, so they kept hitting him, and then he pulled me into his cell.

“Well, they could only come through the door one at a time, and they didn’t want to do that.

“A lot of people didn’t like Dave, but I liked him.”

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