Andrew Rule: The bank robber who turned his tale into gold

HE was one of Australia’s most wanted men, with a daring prison escape and multiple robberies on his rap sheet. But Greg Smith turned his fugitive years into an international bestseller, with Johnny Depp set to play Smith. NEW PODCAST — LISTEN NOW.

THE young Greg Smith was intelligent and well-educated but developed a few bad habits by the time he got to Melbourne University, the worst being heroin.

By the late 1970s he had started robbing building society branches using, he later claimed, a harmless, unloaded handgun.

He committed a record number of armed robberies before being arrested in 1978, and sentenced to 19 years in jail.

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In 1980 Smith and another prisoner pulled off a brazen daylight escape from Pentridge Prison.

The other man, a murderer, was soon caught but Smith took refuge among students and friends in the union movement.

He escaped to New Zealand via Perth, then to India.

Gregory John Peter Smith, left, returning to Melbourne after being caught in Frankfurt.

Promoting his novel in 2003.

Smith vanished until he was arrested in Germany a decade later and identified as one of Australia’s most wanted men.

After serving his time, he wrote an international best-selling novel (under the name Gregory David Roberts) partially based on his fugitive years.

His story was sold to a Hollywood studio which engaged star actor Johnny Depp to play Smith’s role, but the project stalled.

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