If you’ve ever seen Snatch, or any of the Ocean’s movies, you’ll know a good heist when you see one. However, they’re not all super convoluted plots with a personal vendetta. Sometimes, a heist is just a group of people who want to see if they can pull it off.
In April of 2015, a group of elderly men pulled off what has been called “the largest burglary in British legal history”.
Hatton Garden is known as London, England’s diamond district. It houses merchants, banks, and jewellers. It also houses the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Company. It was supposed to be safe, secure, and practically impossible to burgle. And yet, that is exactly what happened.
Over Easter weekend, men nicknamed by the press as Mr. Ginger, Mr. Strong, Mr. Montana, The Gent, The Tall Man, and The Old Man put their plan into action. It was the best time. The businesses were closed, and the Safe Deposit Company was flush with cash, gems, jewellery, and diamonds.
On April 1st, 2015, electrical cables underground caught fire. This led to many disruptions all around central London, including substantial disruptions to communications networks. The fire raged on for two days, evacuating several thousand people. The group took advantage of the chaos and decided that then was the best time to put their plan into action. First responders and police were all thoroughly distracted. Better to strike while no one was looking.
They waited until the depository staff locked the doors. On April 2nd, 2015, at approximately 9:19PM, the game was on.
Brian Reader made his way to Hatton Garden on the bus, using someone else’s Oyster card. Three other group members, Daniel Jones, Carl Wood, and Terry Perkins arrived later in a white van. John “Kenny” Collins arrived later, and served as lookout. He placed himself in clear view of the doors.
Dressed as utility workers, the men unloaded tools and equipment from the van, as well as multiple wheelie bins. They weren’t suspicious. With the fire raging in central London, they could simply be doing maintenance to make sure the fire didn’t spread.
Using some form of key, the men were able to access the premises. But they didn’t directly go underground, where the deposits were stored. Instead, they sent the lift up to where they were, and disabled it. Then, they used the vacant lift shaft to shimmy down to the basement. They also used this method to get the equipment down to where they needed it all.
58-year-old Michael Seed, an alarm specialist, disabled the burglar alarms, and allowed for the others to open the heavy shutters, and set to work.
There was a large concrete wall in the way, and the men set about drilling through it with a Hilti DD350 industrial power drill.
At around 12:21AM on April 3rd, the Metropolitan Police were made aware that an alarm had been triggered. However, they didn’t respond. Later, the police stated that proper call handling procedures were not followed.
However, someone else had been made aware that the alarm had been triggered. A member of the family that owned the company received a call. They weren’t worried, though. They stated that the alarm was sensitive enough that, at one point, it had been triggered by an insect. They assumed this case was similar.
The burglars thwarted authorities a third time that night. An hour after police and the company had been alerted that the alarm had been triggered, a security guard arrived to take a look. They walked around the perimeter of the building, and left without checking inside when they found it secure.
At 8:05AM, the burglars had a discussion. They’d hit a snag while drilling through the wall. Brian Reader, the ringleader, threw in the towel and left. The rest of the group followed suit. They got in the van, and drove away. But some of them weren’t quite as deterred as their leader.
Michael Seed, Daniel Jones, and Terry Perkins went back to Hatton Garden, equipped with a new pump and hose for their drill. As they shimmied back down the lift shaft, they left Kenny Collins as lookout once again.
The men succeeded in drilling three large holes – just enough for the men to squeeze through. They now had access to the safe deposit storage.
One by one, two of the men squeezed through the hole they’d drilled, and began prying open box after box, ransacking anything they could get their hands on. From there, they passed their bags of ill-gotten gains to the third man on the other side. His job was to empty the bags into the wheelie bins that had been brought down the night before.
Between 6:10AM and 6:30AM on April 5th, the burglars took their wheelie bins to Kenny Collins and the waiting van, and left. All in all, they raided over 70 boxes, and left with between £14 million and £200 million in goods. (Estimates vary – but the range generally falls between these two figures.)
They left the drill, the devastation, the dust, the debris, and all their equipment behind.
Kenny took the bins to his house, and left them outside. It wasn’t a collection day. Later, the group reconvened at Kenny’s house, emptied the bins, and divvied up the valuables. After that, they each went their own way with their hauls.
On April 7th, 2015, Scotland Yard arrived at Hatton Garden, and made a statement saying that they were aware of the burglary.
On April 10th, The Daily Mirror released CCTV footage of the burglars entering the premises of the Safe Deposit Company without the knowledge of the police.
While the group had been careful to avoid cameras, they missed one above a fire exit. The men were easily identified from the surveillance footage.
It was enough for investigators to get further warrants for more surveillance. Investigators placed bugs on two vehicles belonging to the suspects, and waited. They wouldn’t have to wait long.
The men boasted about the heist, and had heated discussions with the others about how to proceed with the valuables.
In May of 2015, police raided an address in Enfield based on intel that the group was set to meet there in order to discuss how to proceed with the loot.
On May 19th, 2015, the Metropolitan Police announced that they had arrested nine suspects.
76-year-old Brian Reader, the leader of the group, was arrested and charged first. He’d been known to police, as he’d been involved in the Brinks Mat robbery.
Terry Perkins was also arrested and charged, and was also known to police. He’d previously been sentenced to 22 years in jail for a robbery in 1983.
In November of 2015, Carl Wood, William Lincoln, Jon Harbinson, and Hugh Doyle were charged with conspiracy to commit burglary, as well as conspiracy to conceal, convert, or transfer criminal property.
Almost three years after the Hatton Garden heist, Micheal Seed was arrested on March 28th, 2018. He was charged with conspiracy to burgle, and conspiracy to conceal or disguise criminal property. Prosecutors believe that, posing as an engineer, Seed (known by the nickname Basil) tampered with the security system, and then used a 2G mobile phone jammer to block the alarm system.
On March 9th, 2016, John “Kenny” Collins, Daniel Jones, and Terry Perkins plead guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary. They were each sentenced to seven years in prison.
Carl Wood and William Lincoln were found guilty of conspiracy to commit burglary, as well as conspiracy to conceal, convert, or transfer criminal property. Wood was sentenced to six years in prison, while Lincoln was sentenced to seven years.
Hugh Doyle was found guilty of concealing, converting, or transferring criminal property and was jailed for 21 months. He was also fined £367.50.
Brian Reader was sentenced to six years and three months.
Jon Harbinson was found not guilty of all charges, and was discharged.
In January of 2018, John “Kenny” Collins, Daniel Jones, Terry Perkins, and Brian Reader were ordered to pay a £27.5 million confiscation order or face another seven years in prison.
Terry Perkins passed away while in prison in February of 2018.
Daniel Jones, unable to pay, had his sentence extended by six years and 287 days on August 14th, 2018.
Kenny Collins also had his sentence extended, by 2309 days, for failing to pay the confiscation order.
On March 15th, 2019, Michael Seed was found guilty of burglary and conspiracy to burgle. He was sentenced to ten years for the burglary charge, and eight years for the conspiracy to burgle charge. The sentences are running concurrently.
Unlike the movies, a heist isn’t all glitz and glam. Sometimes, it’s just a group of old men wanting to relive their glory days and getting caught.
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Sources:
Hatton Garden ringleader ‘Basil’ found guilty over £14m heist – The Guardian
Hatton Garden heist: Man arrested and items seized – BBC News
What is the real story behind ITV’s heist drama Hatton Garden? – Eleanor Bley Griffiths – Radio Times
Hatton Garden burglar jailed for extra seven years after failing to pay back £7.6m – Lizzie Dearden – The Independent
Hatton Garden safe deposit burglary Wikipedia page