Tank restorers Nick Mead (right) and Todd Marshall made a remarkable discovery in this old tank (Picture: News Syndication)

A man who bought a tank on eBay for £30,000 got more than his money’s worth after he discovered £2 million of gold bars hidden in the fuel tank.

Nick Mead, 55, found the valuable bullion while restoring a Russian T54/69 with his mechanic friend, Todd Chamberlain.

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He filmed himself opening up the diesel in case he found weapons and needed to show it to bomb disposal crews.

But instead he uncovered five solid gold bars, weighing up to 12lbs each – which are believed to be worth around £2 million in total.


‘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,’ he told The Sun.

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The men found five gold bars they believe to be worth up to £2 million (Picture: Getty Images)

Nick has an impressive collection of 150 military vehicles on his farm in Helmdon, Northamptonshire.

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After seeing the tank advertised on eBay, he traded in an Army lorry and an Abbot self-propelled gun worth £30,000.



The pair believe the gold was looted by Iraqi soldiers in Kuwait during the Gulf War in the early 90s.

‘They must have cut a hole in the fuel tank and rammed it full of gold bars,’ he added.

Police have since taken the gold and left Nick with a receipt (Picture: News Syndication)

The bars have since been taken away by police for analysis.

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Nick has been left a receipt which he has placed in a safety deposit box.

But if it turns out he is unable to keep the bullion, Nick said he’ll still have his ‘beautiful tank’.

A Northamptonshire Police spokesman told the newspaper they could not comment ‘for operational reasons’.