Hatton Garden gang leader says he gained nothing from £25m raid

The ringleader of the Hatton Garden gang has appeared in court to argue he gained nothing from the raid.

Brian Reader, 78, was rolled into the dock in Woolwich Crown Court in a wheelchair, having suffered from a stroke as well as battling prostate cancer.

Frail-looking Reader, who struggled to hear proceedings, is also suffering from loss of sight.

Reader, who was jailed for six years and three months after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary, has been in the healthcare wing at HMP Belmarsh for the last year. He was unable to attend the trial due to ill health.

Reader claims that after he pulled out from the raid after the gang failed to gain entry to the vault on the first night, he received nothing of the gains from the burglary.

The estimated value of the goods stolen over the 2015 Easter weekend raid is up to £25 million.

Ringleaders John “Kenny” Collins, 77, of Bletsoe Walk, Islington, north London; Daniel Jones, 63, of Park Avenue, Enfield, north London; Terry Perkins, 69, of Heene Road, Enfield; and the group’s oldest member, Reader, of Dartford Road, Dartford, Kent, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary.

Collins, Jones and Perkins were each given a seven-year prison term for their involvement in the burglary.

William Lincoln, 60, of Winkley Street, Bethnal Green, east London, was found guilty of the same offence and one count of conspiracy to conceal, convert or transfer criminal property. He was also given a seven-year sentence.

A confiscation hearing, expected to last six weeks, will take place on January 15. James Scobie, representing Reader, unsuccessfully asked for the court to deal with his client sooner, submitting that he had not received any of the loot.

Judge Christopher Kinch QC said: “The question of the extent to which, if at all, Mr Reader was to share in the proceeds is something known to those who were involved in the events and not to anyone else.”