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Tank collector shocked to find £2million gold bullion hidden in the fuel compartment of his £30, zero vehicle

Tank collector shocked to find £2million gold bullion hidden in the fuel compartment of his £30,000 vehicle

Tank fanatic Nick Mead, 55, believes the gold bars were looted by Iraqi soldiers in Kuwait during the Gulf War

A TANK fanatic got a fresh model in a £30,000 trade-in — and found more than £2million of gold bullion hidden in the fuel tank.

Nick Mead, 55, discovered the five gold bars in the Russian T54/Sixty nine while restoring it to add to his collection of one hundred fifty military vehicles.

He and mechanic Todd Chamberlain were filming themselves prising open the diesel tank in case they found munitions and needed to demonstrate it to bomb disposition crews.

Instead, they pulled out the bars, weighing up to 12lb — 5kg — apiece.

Todd, 50, said a quick calculation suggested they were worth in excess of £2million.

He added: “We didn’t know what to do. You can’t exactly take five gold bullion bars down to Cash Converters without questions being asked, so we called the police.”

Nick runs Tanks-a-Lot, providing petrolheads the chance to drive any of his tanks on his farm in Helmdon, Northants.

He traded in an Army lorry and an Abbot self-propelled gun for the T54/Sixty nine in a deal worth about £30,000 after eyeing it advertised on eBay.

Todd and Nick had already found machine gun ammunition while unclothing down the tank and were worried they would find guns.

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Instead, they discovered the gold, which they believe was looted by Iraqi soldiers in Kuwait during the Gulf War.

The tank was later captured and shipped to Britain.

Nick said: “They must have cut a slot in the fuel tank and rammed it utter of gold bars.”

After calling police, two officers took away the bars and gave them a receipt.

The military buffs have stored it in a safety deposit box in London. Nick said: “Even if I don’t get any of the gold back I will still have my beautiful tank.”

A Northamptonshire Police spokesman said they could not comment “for operational reasons”.

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