THE BUMBLING VILLAINS AGED 442

Caught on secret camera, the plotters in a pub

Old school crooks snared by high tech police after £24 million heist

IT WAS the ‘swansong’ job of a gang of ageing crooks with dreams of retiring to the Costa del Sol.

But they were exposed as ‘analogue criminals operating in a digital world’ by police using 21st-century techniques.

The crooks drew on experiences from two crimes – the £26million Brink’s Mat gold heist and the £6million Security Express cash robbery – but both raids took place in 1983, a very different era when they were at the peak of their criminal powers and at the centre of London’s underworld.

They enjoyed links to powerful gangsters, from one of the Kray twins’ most famous henchmen to the violent Adams crime syndicate. But by the time of the Hatton Garden raid in May last year, the seven crooks had a combined age of 442 – an average of 63 – and were struggling with the demands of ‘one last job’.

Indeed, looking at the litany of their ‘school-

‘Boasted of their exploits’

boy’ errors, one senior officer remarked they were no match for his team of ‘digital detectives’. Despite three years of meticulous planning, the gang were brought down by CCTV, number plate recognition cameras and mobile phone evidence.

The main players were caught out as they boasted of their exploits during a drinking session at the Castle pub in Islington.

Undercover officers filmed Terry Perkins as he enthusiastically demonstrated to Brian Reader how they smashed their way into the vault, as Kenny Collins looked on.

The footage was recorded less than a month after the heist.

Following the conviction of three accomplices yesterday – with Reader, Collins, Perkins and Daniel Jones having previously admitted conspiracy to commit burglary – the full history of the Hatton Garden raid can be told for the first time.

Its foundations were laid 32 years earlier at a cash depot less than two miles away in Shoreditch during what was then Britain’s most lucrative cash robbery. Fifteen masked men armed with pistols and shotguns stole £6million, worth almost £20 million today, from the Security Express depot. Guards were blindfolded, trussed up and gagged. One was soaked in petrol and threatened with being turned into a human fireball. Just like Hatton Garden, the raiders struck over the Easter Bank holiday weekend and in further echoes, they used an ‘inside man’ to meticulously plan the robbery.

Among the robbers was Perkins, then celebrating his 35th birthday. He would mark his 67th inside the Hatton Garden vault.

The property dealer was identified in a police surveillance operation and put on trial in an Old Bailey case which lasted 66 days and cost £1million amid fears of jury tampering. Perkins was convicted alongside John Knight, one of the infamous Knight brothers. His sister-in-law, actress Barbara Windsor, gave evidence.

Jailed for 22 years, the pair were described by the trial judge as ‘two evil, ruthless men’, but the hunt for the missing money did not stop. In 1990, Krays henchman Freddie Foreman, nicknamed ‘Brown Bread Fred’, was jailed for nine years for his £363,280 share. An East End folk hero, he was jailed with Ronnie and Reggie Kray in 1968 over the murder of Jack ‘The Hat’ McVitie.

The Brink’s Mat gold heist took place at Heathrow in November 1983. Six masked robbers broke into the fortress-like warehouse, doused a guard in petrol and threatened to set him ablaze before stealing three tonnes of gold.

Reader, the oldest member of the Hatton Garden gang, was brought in to mastermind the operation to make the gold disappear. Then in his mid-40s, he teamed up with gangster Kenneth Noye, a rising star in the criminal underworld.

Much of the bullion was melted down at the West Country hideaway of businessman John Palmer, soon to be dubbed ‘Goldfinger’. Their work was so successful, it has been said that anyone who bought gold jewellery made in Britain since the raid is probably wearing part of the Brink’s Mat haul.

The police investigation into Brink’s Mat took a tragic turn when the Flying Squad surveillance operation led to Noye’s Kent mansion.

Veteran undercover officer DC John Fordham was cornered by rottweillers and Noye stabbed him 11 times in the chest, armpit, head and back and left him to die. Colleagues rushing to his side saw Reader kick the mortally wounded officer and a post-mortem examination found evidence he may have held him as he was stabbed.

Noye and Reader stood trial for murder at the Old Bailey in December 1985. They were acquitted after the gangster told jurors he acted in self-defence and feared the officer was an underworld rival.

But their relief was short-lived as they were immediately rearrested and remanded in custody, accused of laundering the Brink’s Mat gold and a £1million VAT scam. When they were both convicted of this, Noye shouted: ‘I hope you all die of cancer.’ Reader yelled: ‘You have made one terrible mistake.’

Noye was jailed for 14 years and fined £500,000, while Reader, described as his ‘vigorous righthand man’ received nine years. Noye remains in prison for a 1996 road-rage murder.

Reader managed to avoid any further jail time, but the Brink’s Mat haul all but bankrupted him as he was chased by the company’s insurers. He had to pay £5 million by the High Court and £500,000 to insurers to fend off a costly civil case.