How the largest burglary in English legal history unfolded after a gang of elderly robbers carried out ‘one last job’ in the heart of the capital’s jewellery district
THE Hatton Garden robbery was recently retold in a movie and is currently airing as a ITV four-part documentary
It is no surprise the raid turned to our screens because it has all the ingredients of a good old-fashioned crime caper. Here is how the crime was carried out.
During the Easter weekend of 2015, four elderly raiders ransacked an underground safe deposit facility in London's Hatton Garden, which is known as the capital city’s jewellery district.
High-duty drills were used to tunnel into the vault, boring through 7ft thick walls to crack open 73 boxes.
They contained millions of pounds of jewels and precious metals, including diamonds, sapphires and gold.
Eventually the men - all experienced thieves doing "one last job" - were all caught and all pleaded guilty to the crime.
Four accomplices were also tried for the crime.
In 2016, just under a year from the heist, the so-called “diamond wheezers” comprising of a total of seven men - with an average age of 63 - were convicted of their involvement in the heist.
Ringleaders Brian Reader, 76, Terry Perkins, 67, Daniel Jones, 58 and Kenny Collins, 75, admitted conspiring to commit burglary from the start.
Collins, Jones and Perkins were handed seven-year sentences while Reader got six years and three months in jail.
Perkins, who had diabetes and heart problems, died in jail in February 2018 of natural causes.
Carl Wood, 58, and William Lincoln, 60, were found guilty of the same charge by a jury following a trial.
Lincoln - aka “Billy the Fish” - was given a seven-year sentence and Wood was jailed for six years.
Hugh Doyle, 48, was found guilty of conspiracy to conceal, convert or transfer criminal property and given a suspended prison sentence.
Jon Harbinson, 42, was cleared of all charges.
The last suspect, Michael Seed, claims he could have been on a family holiday at the time of the raid but will forever be known as "Basil".
Giving evidence at Woolwich on February 28, he said is now known as "Basil", the nickname given to the alarm expert caught on CCTV letting himself in to the safe deposit building.
Michael Seed was locked up for his part in the heist which raided safe deposit boxes in central London.
Seed is a 58-year-old electronics expert who took part in the infamous heist on security deposit boxes in London’s diamond district Hatton Garden over the Easter bank holiday weekend in April 2015.
Initially it was reported that £14million of valuables, including gold, diamonds and sapphires, were stolen but it's not known officially what the total value of what they stole was.
But some reports estimate it could be up to a staggering £200m.
An estimated two-thirds of the valuables remain unrecovered.
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