AS a blonde OAP decked out in a pair of stylish specs, Joan Hannington could pass for a typical pensioner with a bit of an eye for fashion.
But the sweet-looking grandmother was actually once Britain’s most notorious jewel thief, and she is now the subject of a new self-titled ITV drama telling her amazing story.
A glammed-up Joan Hannington in 2004, showing off a rock to promote her first book[/caption]
Star Sophie with the real-life Joan to promote the new ITV series[/caption]
In the 1980s, master-of-disguise Joan Hannington stole diamond rings by swallowing them in high-class jewellery shops and netted £3MILLION in credit card and cheque frauds.
The unassuming mum-of-two also burgled country houses, shot a man, survived an assassination bid and was widowed when an arson attack by her husband went wrong.
She even claims to have made love to her high-class thief hubby with £1million in cash strewn on their bed.
In her new book Joan, out last week, she said: “Swallowing diamonds was my life, my buzz, my drug.
“It was the only thing that I really liked doing. To me, I had a gift.”
Last night, viewers saw the first part of her incredible story unfold in ITV’s latest real-life drama.
And today we reveal the amazing truth behind six-part series Joan, which features Game Of Thrones star Sophie Turner in the title role and Frank Dillane as her partner-in-crime hubby.
Sophie revealed: “She is one of the most notorious figures in the London criminal underworld, earning her the nickname ‘The Godmother’.
“A woman who goes about her thriving and daring career as a jewel thief, all while trying to get her daughter back from social services.
“A mother in despair, swept up in the exhilarating world of crime.”
Joan, now 67, was the youngest of six children born to a poor Irish family living in a council flat in Acton, West London.
She was just four years old when her stunning godmother, a glamorous redhead called Eloise, presented Joan with a bracelet inlaid with a glass stone.
‘I’ve got to have some’
Joan recalls: “For the first time in my life I had something beautiful that was all mine. That night, I dreamed of having money and diamonds. That gift was the inspiration that set me on the path to great riches . . . illegally.”
By 13, she had left home to escape her violent father, Richard O’Leary.
The former boxing promoter, who suffered from tuberculosis, vented his anger on his children, attacking them with whip-thin sticks that left scars.
Four years later Joan married armed robber Ray Pavey, then 27, and had her daughter Debbie.
Like her father, Pavey was violent and once threw ammonia into her face, causing a squint in her right eye that is still evident 50 years later.
He also threw Joan from a moving car. She later walked out, but had to leave behind her daughter Debbie, who was then taken into care.
Desperate to win back her child, Joan lied about her minor criminal record to land a job with a high-class jewellers in London’s West End.
She said: “I was determined to get Debbie back but I needed money and a place to live.
“One day, I was sent to the safe at the back of the shop, where the CCTV cameras didn’t operate, to collect some loose diamonds. I opened the safe and trays of brilliant white stones glittered back at me.
“My heart galloping, I realised the chance to make some instant money and regain custody of Debbie was staring me right straight in the face.
“I couldn’t believe my eyes. There were all these trays inside, and I’d never seen such big diamonds and emeralds — I just thought, ‘F**k it. I’ve got to have some of this’.
“I found the four trays they had sent me to get, and every one of them was full of loose stones.
“I lifted them out of the safe and turned to carry them out — and no one was watching me, but I didn’t do it then. I was sweating like a pig and my heart was going ten to the dozen. I had to go through two doors, then up the stairs to another office.
“I grabbed a handful of diamonds off each tray and swallowed them. I didn’t know it at the time, but I’d swallowed about £800,000 of stones.”
“Twelve hours later, once nature had taken its course, I sterilised the gems in a bowl of gin.
Sophie seen in the new show enjoying a glass of champers[/caption]
The drama shows the ex-criminal’s lavish getaways, funded by crime[/caption]
Glam Joan at the series launch in London this month[/caption]
“Astonishingly, they were never missed. I thought the jewels were worth around £10,000 and sold a couple through dodgy gem dealers.
“It was only years later, when I had learned more about diamonds, that I realised their real value.”
Joan, who still suffers from ulcers from years of swallowing jewels, stashed the diamonds in a tin buried in the ground near her council flat in Islington, North London.
A few months later she quit working at the jewellers and soon met a new lover, Ronald Thomas Hannington, aka Benny Boisie.
Benny was 17 years older and an antiques dealer, a cover for his other life as a high-class thief.
I grabbed a handful of diamonds off each tray and swallowed them. I didn’t know it at the time, but I’d swallowed about £800,000 of stones
Joan
He taught her the tricks of his trade, including cheque and credit fraud plus the finer points of stealing jewellery in 1980s London.
“My marriage to Benny was supposedly what the Eighties were all about,” Joan says. “Fast cars, fast living, Michael Jackson at the top of the charts, Dallas and Dynasty on the TV. I loved the glamour of that period.
“We had a home that was like a palace to whoever came there. Boisie had every room expertly decorated with Victorian and Edwardian gear, art deco, art nouveau.
“Our flat only cost £27,110 from the council, yet we had about £1million of gear in there.
“We never had a floor safe or an alarm or even a panic button — just grilles on all the doors, window locks and a load of weapons hidden around the flat.”
In her previous 2002 memoir, I Am What I Am, Joan revealed how she would book into a five-star hotel such as The Ritz before arriving, draped in a fur coat, at a high-end jewellery store in a hired car with a chauffeur, to ask to view their diamond rings.
With a push-up bra showing her cleavage to keep male assistants distracted, Joan carefully memorised details of the piece she wanted, before telling smitten staff she “was going away to think about it”.
She would then commission a counterfeiter in London’s Hatton Garden to make a cheap replica, then return to look at the ring again.
Wearing gloves, she made the swap, swallowing the jewel while feigning a sneeze.
She would then hand the fake ring back to the shop assistant, ask to buy it later and leave a deposit using a stolen credit card or with a bogus banker’s draft.
Joan said: “I would leave the shop feeling ecstatic. I never felt guilty. I knew the jewels and antiques were insured and I only stole from people who could afford it.
“Swallowing diamonds was my life, my buzz, my drug. It was the only thing that I really liked doing . . . To me, I had a gift. The world was my stage and I played my roles to perfection.
“I never got the Oscar — I got the diamond instead.” Impressively, actress Sophie, who played Sansa Stark in GoT, was taught Joan’s trick of creating lots of saliva in her mouth to force down the gems, this time using fakes made from solid jelly.
She reveals: “I was given gummy diamonds to swallow. But they were so sticky they didn’t come off the paper. So I ended up just putting the real ones in my mouth.
“But they were cubic zirconia, and I didn’t swallow them.
“We needed to show it was an obsession — this fascination with this sparkly thing that’s been so unattainable her whole life.”
Joan and Benny, who stashed their stolen millions in bank vaults, bought luxury cars including a Ferrari, a Jaguar and a Mercedes.
‘I wrestled the gun’
On a whim they would fly first-class to New York, Miami, Marbella or Cyprus, staying in the priciest suites in the most exclusive hotels.
Joan says: “I always dressed in designer clothes and was weighed down with diamonds, Cartier watches and gold. At one stage, I had 11 fur coats and 2,000 pairs of shoes.”
In 1987, Joan gave birth to their son, Benny junior, and cut back on her criminal activities.
But three years later, her husband was killed in a botched multi-million-pound insurance fraud.
Boisie had set fire to a warehouse, causing such a huge explosion it was initially reported as a suspected IRA bomb attack.
She said: “It was the lowest point of my life. After Benny died, a business associate of his took out a £75,000 contract on me — although, fortunately the man paid to kill me was a friend of my husband’s and he ran off with his advance.
“Later, I got mixed up with a boyfriend who embezzled more than £1million from my business. So I know what it’s like to be robbed.”
The same man — a heroin addict — turned up one night at Joan’s flat and pointed a gun at her.
She said: “I challenged him either to pull the trigger or leave.
“He didn’t do either and I wrestled the gun from him because I can fight as tough as any man — and shot him. I missed three times and only grazed his kneecap.”
That was the moment Joan turned her back on crime to bring up her son in an ordinary life.
She admitted: “The money never brought me any pleasure. I decided to go straight. I had more than enough money to last for life.”
Amazingly, Joan was only ever prosecuted twice.
The money never brought me any pleasure. I decided to go straight
Joan
She was given a two-year probation order for stealing a car to visit daughter Debbie in care and, aged 24, she was sentenced to 30 months in Holloway Prison for using a stolen chequebook.
Sadly, she was not able to persuade social services to hand back Debbie, whose name has been changed to Kelly in the TV drama. But her son Benny is now a 37-year-old rapper and Joan has a granddaughter.
Sophie says: “Sometimes when you’re doing a show like this, and it’s ‘heisty’ and there’s diamonds and glamour, you get swept away by it.
“You have to remember this was all to provide a stable life for her daughter. It’s really heart-breaking.”
- Joan Hannington’s memoir, Joan: The True Story Of Britain’s Most Notorious Diamond Thief, is published by Ebury Spotlight. Joan continues on ITV1 and ITVX, with episode two screening tonight.
Show gave me strength for divorce, says Turner
STARRING in Joan helped Sophie stay strong as she negotiated a heartbreaking split from her husband and a bitter custody battle over their children.
She and singer Joe Jonas, both below, filed for divorce in September 2023, after four years of marriage.
Sophie later sued her ex for permission to take their daughters Willa, four, and Delphine, two, back to the UK, accusing him of withholding their passports amid a war of words.
They now share joint custody. She told the Sunday Times: “The series [Joan] came around at a time in my life where I had to have such strong will and fight against the forces. She gave me a lot of strength.
“If I hadn’t been a mother, I don’t know if I would have been able to bring the same energy. It’s a struggle being a single mother.”
The star said she identified with Joan’s battle to provide for her kids, adding: “You will go to the ends of the Earth for your children.”
