The wife of a £1million bullion robber wore a specially modified bra to hide gold bars, the Old Bailey heard.
But they came tumbling out when she was frisked by Belgian police, the jury was told.
The 53-year-old’s underwear had been fitted with inner pockets, the court was told.
But two ingots weighing more than 12oz crashed onto the floor when she was searched after being stopped in a car with her husband a week after the bars were stolen.
Sheron Mancini told detectives she had put them in her bra because she was “terrified”.
David Gale, 55, has already admitted his part in the plot after he was caught with grains of silver stolen in the same raid inside his travel bag at the same time.
Also among the six who have pleaded guilty to the conspiracy is David Chatwood, 58, who is married to Sue Wells, the mother of The Only Way Is Essex stars Sam and Billie Faiers.
Extracts from Belgian police interviews with Mancini were read to the jury. In one, a police officer asks her: “How come these gold bars were found in your possession?”
Mancini replied: “I don’t know. I found them in the pocket of my jacket and was so terrified I put them in my bra.”
Mancini is on trial alongside John Corley, 52, Kyriacos Nicolas, 30, and his father Andreas Nicolas, 50, over their alleged involvement.
Some 25kg of gold and 150kg of silver grain was snatched from a lorry transporting it from Vilvoorde, near Brussels, back to the UK last October, jurors have heard.
Corley, of Biggin Hill, Kent; and Kyriacos Nicolas, of Winchmore Hill, deny conspiracy to steal and conspiracy to conceal, disguise, convert or transfer criminal property.
Mancini, of Roydon, Harlow, Essex; and Andreas Nicolas, of Duxford, Cambs, deny conspiracy to conceal, disguise, convert or transfer criminal property.
Mancini was cleared of conspiracy to steal on the directions of the judge after prosecutors offered no evidence shortly after a jury was sworn in.
Stanley Rose, 75, Gary Cummings, 51, Matthew Middleton, 42, and lorry driver Brian Mulcahy, 46, along with Chatwood and Gale, have already pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal.
The trial continues.
