Cold Case File. What happened to Lord Brockets missing cars?

Cold Case Files. Lord Brockets Missing Cars.

It has been 30 years exactly since Charles Nall-Cain better known as Lord Brocket reported to the police in Hertfordshire that several of his Italian classic cars from his huge 50 car collection valued at £20 million pounds had been stolen.

These were a Ferrari 195 Sport, a Ferrari 250 Europa GT, a Ferrari 340 America, a Maserati Tipo 61 ‘Birdcage, an OSCA 2000 complete with spare engine and four Maserati engines and parts which Brocket valued together at £4.5 million pounds.

I remember being contacted by the Hertfordshire police at the hq of the Metropolitan Police stolen car squad which was housed in a secret seven story car park full of exotic stolen cars seized from organised vehicle crime gangs which operated throughout Europe at the time.

We were asked if we had either recovered any of these priceless cars or if not did we have any idea who might have taken them.

The well-publicised ‘alleged’ theft of course was bogus and Lord Brocket and two employees had in fact cut the vehicles up into pieces between April the 25th and May 7th 1991 and buried several of them in the grounds of Brocket Hall, his 57 acre family estate near Hatfield in Hertfordshire.

Brocket waited a few weeks before making the ‘discovery’ that the cars were missing and then lodged a fraudulent insurance claim for £4.5m, the value of the missing cars.

It is fair to say that the police were suspicious from the outset as were Brocket’s insurers, General Accident, who refused to pay up. Brocket initially took the case to court but later withdrew the claim.

Enquiries proceeded until late 1994 when his by-now estranged wife, Lady Isabell Lorenzo, informed the police about the fraud.

Lord Brocket was subsequently charged with fraud and in February 1966 he was sentenced to five years imprisonment * of which he served two and a half.

Speaking to both retired officers that were on the case at the time and classic marque aficionados we discovered a little more as to what happened to them whether they survived and where they are now.

The disappearance of these cars was orchestrated by Lord Brocket in a military style operation.

Evidence showed that the Maserati Birdcage and the Ferrari 195 aluminium bodies, seat cushions and some other parts were cut up and were found to have been burned in a vast wood-burning boiler, normally used for heating Brocket’s showroom complex.

The Ferrari 250 Europa and 340 America Cabriolet which had steel bodies were cut into smaller sections and flattened as were some of the chassis parts. 

Special items like the hand-painted dashboard instruments and hand-made badges that adorned the Ferraris' rears, were carefully wrapped and boxed and together with most of the mechanical components such as engines, drive train, suspension and steering were packed in wooden crates for storage at a rented facility in Greenford, on the western edge of London, at a rent of £1.5K a year.

Several other chassis and engines plus a few component parts were also found buried in various places around Brockets 57 acre estate and recovered in poor condition.

Over the course of the past 25 years most of the parts have been recovered swapped, exchanged, sold and restored to make once again a classic car.

Thankfully most of the new owners are aware of their car’s infamous history, that of being involved in the biggest classic car fraud ever.

1951 Ferrari 340 America Vignale chassis number 0138A

Lord Brocket’s 1951 Ferrari 340 America chassis number 0138A, fitted with V12 4.1 litre Lampredi engine was one of just 23 made by the Marinello factory, 11 of which had Vignale coachwork. His car was unique however as it was the only example completed as a cabriolet.

The documented history of chassis number 0138A showed that it was supplied new in 1951 to a Mr Lindner of Detroit Michigan with a two-tone colour scheme.

In 1980 after a period of time in storage it was in the hands of Chicago Ferrari collector, Joe Marchetti who sold it in 1987 to a Ron Spangler of Prancing Horse Farm in Baltimore.

Spangler entered the car for Christie’s Monaco auction in May 1988 but it failed to meet the reserve.

Later that year it was purchased by Lord Brocket for his growing collection which now amounted to over 50 cars then valued at £20 million pounds.

Whilst it was in his ownership Brocket altered the car by adding an intake on the bonnet and one on the shoulder of each rear mudguard. He also carved cooling vents in the bonnet and behind all four wheels.

Only the chassis and engine from chassis number 0138 A were recovered and in 1996 the car was obtained and rebuilt by DK Engineering Ferrari specialists of Rickmansworth in Essex.

In the absence of the original shell a new competition-style Vignale ‘Spyder’ shell was created and fitted to the restored chassis.

The original 340 engine number 0138 still exists but has a cracked cylinder head and is currently disassembled.      The rebuilt car now has a 250 engine number 1241GT.

The car which is today valued in excess of $850,000 dollars has bizarrely increased in value due to its connection with Lord Brocket.

It was last seen at a Concours D’elegance event in Suzuka, with its Japanese owner. 

1955 Ferrari 250 Europa GT Coupe S2 chassis number 0421GT

In 1980 Lord Brocket became the sixth owner of a 1955 grey and silver Ferrari 250 Europa GT chassis number 0421GT which was based on that of the desirable 250 Mille Miglia. The GT had coachwork by both Pininfarina and Vignale and was fitted with a Colombo 3 litre V12 engine.

28 of these were built and 0421GT was number 27 off the Marinello factory production line and in 1955 it was taken to Holland by Simon Maasland the Dutch Ferrari importer and sold in September of that year to Nico Koel of Huizen, Holland. It changed hands several times before Lord Brocket purchased the car in 1980.

After pieces of it were recovered it was resold to Nico Koel’s son by DK Engineering (Watford, Herts) and restoration of the chassis and engine parts and body rebuild was finished in 2002.

The car remains with its owner Nico Koel and is often seen at Concours D’elegance events in Holland.

195 Inter body 0024M Vignale Coupe 1950 chassis number 0097S (0123S)

Lord Brockets’ 1950 195 Inter body 0024M Vignale Coupe, chassis number 0097S had already a chequered life before he obtained it.

The car was a right hand drive model, supplied new to a Franco Cornachia in Milan who sent it to Alfred Ducato in California via Zumbuchs garage in New York.

One of only three 195 Sports to be bodied by ‘Touring’, it was allegedly raced at Silverstone and competed in an international RAC rally and in a ‘Tour de France event. Another 195 Sport had won the 1950 Mille Miglia.

In 1952 it was raced by Viviano Corradini and in 1955 displayed at various Concours event including Pebble Beach by new owner W.L.Keating.

At some time prior to 1978 it was destroyed by fire and what was left of the chassis was purchased by John Baker of Cheltenham who fitted a second body to it from another Vignale Coupe car chassis number 0024M.

Its chassis was shortened and the car was fitted with an engine from another 195 Inter number 0087S

When Lord Brocket purchased it in 1992 it was thought to have been an unfinished project and in poor condition having allegedly been found in an avocado grove in the USA.

He is shown as restoring the car, ‘correcting’ the chassis and indeed displaying it at both the Louis Vuitton and Goodwood Concours events in June 1993, the latter winning him the ‘Best in Show’ award.

In 1994 it was auctioned at Christies for an estimated £65 to £85,000 and after passing through several German and Danish hands has remained with its American owners since 1997

1960 Maserati Tipo 61 Birdcage chassis number 2456

The dark red 1960 Maserati Tipo 61 Birdcage chassis number 2456 that Lord Brocket owned was once raced at Laguna Seca and other circuits in America by both its first and second owners Jack Hinkle and George Koehne.

Prior to 1970 it was involved in a garage fire and given to the University of Houston Engineering department who sold parts of it to Lord Brocket via American Joel Finn.

Brocket had a chassis and body built for the car and had UK engineering firm Crosthwaite & Gardener fit a new 2.8 engine to it.

Other parts of the original car were also at the time being rebuilt by a Bruce Vanyo of California.

The original car was last seen in 2000 in Monterey (Laguna Seca) in the ownership of Gregor Fiskin.

1954 OSCA 200S chassis number 2004 Spyder

The 1954 OSCA 200S chassis number 2004 Spyder, owned by Lord Brocket had a Spider body and was fitted with a twin-spark engine and was originally acquired by Luigi Piotti to race in Italy. An American owner fitted it with a Chevrolet engine to compete at Pikes Peak Hill Climb.

In 1970 its American owner fitted an experimental 2.5-litre six-cylinder engine from a 1954 formula 1 car to it.

Lord Brocket acquired it circa 1990 and enough of it was discovered for mew owner Abraham Kogan to completely restore it during 2000.

In 2007 it failed to sell for its new German owner at Sotheby’s Auction in London when asking price of £325,000 was rejected.

It was again restored and was last seen at the Spa race circuit in Belgium and at Modena circuit in Italy as well as several concours events.

The ‘Cloned’ 1962 Ferrari 250 GTE 2+2 fraud.

Lord Brocket had also committed another earlier fraud when he sold a fake 1962 Ferrari 250 GTE 2+2 suggesting it was a 250 SWB complete with the chassis number of a real SWB that had been missing for a long time.

His lordship had wanted a Ferrari SWB and unable to afford one decided to build one instead. He purchased a 250 GTE chassis number 4015 which was already a partially completed SWB replica project. He (allegedly) fraudulently stamped the chassis number 3565, the number which belonged to that of a long-lost Ferrari SWB.

As Brocket’s financial problems deteriorated, he sold the fake car to John Shirley of Microsoft for $575,000 dollars which was the going rate for a real SWB at that time.

The fraud however was exposed when the real SWB chassis number 3565 appeared in France.

The embarrassed owner of the fake car sold it for $125,000 dollars as the replica it was and it was given a new state-assigned chassis number 749761. This car was subsequently sold to someone in Monaco for $163,436 at the Barrett-Jackson/Coys Monaco sale in May 2002.

The genuine SWB chassis number 3565 was thoroughly restored and changed hands in 1999 for $695,000. It was then resold a month later for $832,652.

*When the SWB scheme was discovered, an additional two years was added to Lord Brocket’s original sentence of five years. #classic cars #Ferrari # investigation