Military soldiers, Nick Mead and Todd Chamberlain expected to find rusty guns when they investigated the diesel container of a tank they had just bought for £30,000.

Mr Mead, who runs Tanks-a-Lot in Helmdon, Northamptonshire, filmed their investigation and was left gobsmacked when instead of artillery his mechanic pulled out a stash of glistening bullion.

Seconds before the discovery Mr Mead is heard telling his colleagues what they should do with the guns, only for Mr Chamberlain to pull out the gold and exclaim: ‘Well, it’s not guns that’s for sure.’

He then proceeds to recover the rest of the bars, believed to have been looted by Iraq soldiers during the invasion of Kuwait in 1990, while an excited Mr Mead celebrates from behind the camera.

Mr Mead says: ‘Is that what I think it is? How heavy is it? Seriously?! Is that gold? Oh god, that’s about five or six kilos. Wow.

‘See how many there are, find the rest! Yeehaah! What are we going to do with them?

‘Oh my God. I don’t believe it,  what do you reckon they’re worth? Where did they come from?  It could be Kuwaiti or Iraq.

‘How many more are there? This is better than having puppies! Incredible.’

After pulling the bullion from inside the Chinese-made T54 tank, the pair then ring the police to register their find.

Talking to the camera, Mr Mead says: ‘It’s not something I had thought finding. Great bars of gold hidden in a tank. Absolutely incredible.

‘But, we’ve got to ring the police. I don’t know whether this is millions or hundred of thousands worth. But one thing is for certain, I don’t want it lying around my office.

 

‘We’ll get a receipt and hopefully, just hopefully, we’ll get to keep it. What’s the chance of us keeping it?

Off camera, some one replies: ‘Absolutely zero.’

The film then ends with the crew weighing their loot in order to find out how much it is worth.

The tank had been restored by previous owner Joe Hewes, 23, who replaced its tracks and fixed its engine without ever discovering the valuable booty inside.

Mr Mead, who has a collection of 150 military vehicles, had traded an Army lorry and an Abbot self-propelled gun for the tank.

Recalling the moment the pair found the gold, Mr Chamberlain told The Sun: ‘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 added that a quick calculation estimated the worth of the gold at £2million.

Mr Mead said: ‘We know it is definitely an Iraq tank and our theory is the gold is from Kuwait but we don’t know.

‘When we found it, we were all laughing and joking and deciding what we were going to spend the money on.

 

‘My sister wanted a Land Rover and I would buy a Rolls Royce Phantom and chop the back off to make a pick-up truck.’

The exact history of Mr Hewes’ tank is unknown but an inspection revealed it is a Chinese copy of the Russian T-54 design and manufactured under the designation Type 69.

It was built in the early 1980s and has just 1507 miles on the clock.

Mr Mead said: ‘I saw it advertised and I had this idea of doing a ‘From Russia With Love’ experience where people would come and drive three Russian tanks.

‘I always keep an eye on military vehicles online, I check it once every three days. I often sell tanks online and I buy from there too.

‘It is unusual to get one of these now, they range from around £10k to £60k. I did well buying it for £30k.’

Meanwhile two officers from Northamptonshire Police took the bars away for investigation and handed him a receipt which is now being kept in a safety deposit box in London.