See the police file on Victor Hervey

The aristocratic father of Victoria and Isabella Hervey, the society It girls, was identified by Scotland Yard as an “oily scoundrel” behind scores of jewellery robberies.

A newly released Metropolitan police file at the National Archives reveals that Victor Hervey, the 6th Marquess of Bristol, criminal record no 19440, was suspected of being the Pink Panther of his day.

He was thought to have used his aristocratic connections to mastermind a series of jewellery robberies from acquaintances he made as a member of a set known as the Mayfair Playboys.

Investigations led by Detective Inspector Robert Fabian also unearthed allegations of arms and drugs running.

An informant tipped off the police that Hervey had set up one of the most audacious raids of the 1940s. His black Rolls-Royce was supposedly used as a getaway vehicle by four masked men who broke into Hever Castle in Kent, home of Lord Astor, bound and gagged the night watchman and made off with historic treasures.

Their haul included Henry VIII’s signet ring, Elizabeth I’s prayer book and a psalter (book of psalms) owned by Anne Boleyn. Police kept watch on Hervey’s houseboat, the Dry Martini, moored at Thames Dit-ton, Surrey, for weeks hoping to catch him with the loot.

In later life, after succeeding to the title, Hervey achieved some respectability as a businessman and chancellor of the Monarchist League. When he died in 1985, while Victoria and Isabella were children, he had rebuilt the family fortunes with a range of enterprises from managing the country seat at Ickworth, Sussex, to small airlines, publishing and estates in the West Indies.

Victoria, 30, and her younger sister Isabella, 25, children of his third marriage, are both models and socialites. Victoria is pursuing an acting career in Hollywood and Isabella is the face of the Playboy adult TV channel. Their brother Frederick is the 8th Marquess.

Some of the offspring of Hervey’s three marriages have led troubled lives. His heir John squandered a fortune on drugs and died from his addiction; another son, Nicholas, committed suicide.

Hervey set up a finance firm in 1936 as a front for arms dealing with General Franco and told a bankruptcy hearing that he could pay his debts with a £30,000 commission owed to him by the Spanish dictator.

Using his uncle’s Mayfair flat as a base, Hervey set up a burglary at the home of a Russian princess, Pauline Daubeny, over Easter 1939. He knew that she was away visiting the family of his accomplice, George Hering. They were caught after a second robbery in which they got their victim, Gabrielle Burley, drunk and stole her jewellery.

As ringleader, Hervey was jailed for three years at the Old Bailey. He admitted links to a gang of former public schoolboys known as the Mayfair Playboys who beat up and robbed a Cartier jewel salesman in the Hyde Park hotel. Their attack was so vicious that two of the gang were sentenced to be flogged with a cat-o’-nine-tails.

When he was released on licence in 1941 he set up a film company but police suspected he was back to his old ways.

An anonymous letter, which Scotland Yard appears to have taken seriously, alleged that Hervey was one of London’s criminal masterminds. It read: “If you are not already aware of the fact, it might be as well to inform you that behind almost every jewel robbery which takes place in the Metropolitan area, and within areas outside London, is the Hon Victor Hervey.

“You are probably aware that this villain is one of the most unscrupulous, calculating and cunning criminals at large.

“Seldom does he take part in the actual robberies. He employs crooks to work for him, and they enter premises which he has previously gained particulars about.

“This thief, who has already served three years penal servitude, should be watched night and day . . .”

On the strength of such suspicions, Scotland Yard advised the French embassy to refuse Hervey and a business partner visas. It warned that “these oily scoundrels are quite unreliable and untrustworthy and capable of anything bad”.

This weekend a spokesman for Victoria said: “It is Lady Victoria’s understanding that her father was set up falsely in connection with these incidents and that he took no part in the jewel thefts referenced, nor in any raid on Hever Castle.”

Hervey’s second wife, Lady Juliet Tadgell, said: “This is the first I have heard of this. We met in 1959 and he told me about the court case before we married. I accepted it as a closed incident.

“He never mentioned anything further and I can’t help thinking he would have done. I think it most unlikely that he was some kind of Raffles character.

“He was a reformed character by the time I met him.”

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