At it – engaged in crime

Bird – prison time

Blag – con, cheat or rob

Coat off – deliver a humiliating rebuke

Dabs – fingerprints

Face – professional criminal

Fanny – sweet-talk or deceive

Firm – gang

Firm-handed – as part of, or accompanied by, your gang

Grass – police informer

Long firm – fraud wherein a former paying customer

disappears with a large order of goods

Moody – dubious, false

On top – apparent to the police

Plot up – arrive on the scene

Ready eye – robbery under police observation

Shillelagh – Irish ornamental club

SP – starting price, i.e. basic information

SP office – bookmaker’s

Spieler / spiel – unlicensed gambling club

Tickle – proceeds from a robbery

Tom – cockney rhyming slang: tomfoolery = jewellery

Topped – killed

Verbal – uncorroborated written police statement