Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(UK Und.) one who plans a robbery or tips off thieves as to where a robbery might profitably be committed, e.g. a servant in a great house, a bank clerk etc.

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 260: putter up the projector or planner of a put-up affair, as a servant in a gentleman’s family, who proposes to a gang of house-breakers the robbery of his master’s house, and informs them where the plate, &c., is deposited, (instances of which are frequent in London) is termed the putter up, and usually shares equally in the booty with the parties executing, although the former may lie dormant, and take no part in the actual commission of the fact.
1824		Morn. Post (London) 22 Oct. 2/3: He was suspected of being what is called the putter-up (the person planning) of the robbery.
1828		G. Smeeton Doings in London 350: A set of ‘putters-up,’ and ‘fences,’ with means of evading [...] the arm of the law.
1839		W.A. Miles Poverty, Mendicity and Crime; Report 132: A man named H-- [...] was a putter-up of burglaries.
1841		W. Kent Guardian 17 Apr. 6/4: The ‘putter up,’ who gave information of the booty [...] has got off scathless.
1857		Western Times (Devon) 1 Aug. 7/6: The notirous bank forger [...] Jem the Penman, the putter up of all the great robberies in the metropolis for the last twenty years.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 99/1: On all sides [...] were shelves, loaded with costly goods, which the ‘putter up’ said was worth some thousands of pounds.
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 7 Sept. n.p.: Get the ‘putter-up of the job’ on the stand and [...] you will have the truth.
1873		Sl. Dict. 263: Putter up a man who travels about for the purpose of obtaining information useful to professional burglars. A man of this description will assume many characters, sometimes ingratiating himself with the master of a house, sometimes with the servants, but all to one end, that of robbery. He rarely or never joins in the actual burglary, his work being simply to obtain full particulars as to how, when, and where, for which he receives his full share of the ‘swag’.
1879		Morpeth Herald 15 Feb. 3/4: Jonathan Wild was not only a preceptor of thieves and a ‘putter-up’ of robberies, but also a receiver of stolen goods.
1883		Huddersfield Chron. 24 Sept. 4/2: ‘The Putter-up.’ This is the person who collects information, wantign which, burglary becomes such a mere game of hazard.
1891		F.W. Carew Autobiog. of a Gipsey 415: Alf Palmer [...] as said ’s how he could put me up to a real soft thing. Alf were a putter-up by perfeshion.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 62: Putter Up, a person who plans, and takes every pains so that the robbery be done with security.
1903		St James’s Gaz. (London) 20 Mar. 9/2: Kemp associated with some of the most notorious criminals frequenting the West End. He lived in good style [...] and acted as ‘putter-up of jobs’.
1929		C.G. Gordon Crooks of the Und. 204: The crook valet, or private servant, if not a ‘putter-up,’ is compelled to employ forged or bogus references when applying for a situation.
1941		V. Davis Phenomena in Crime 64: This notorious ‘putter-up’ of crimes.
1955		B. Hill Boss of Britain’s Underworld 30: Buyers [i.e. of stolen goods] [...] are the best putters-up of jobs of all. Fences are always trying to get burglars to do jobs so they can buy the stolen gear at a profit.