Barrister’s admiration for Hatton Garden gems gang

THE barrister of the man cleared of hoarding the Hatton Garden loot said he has a ‘grudging admiration’ for the gang yesterday.

Philip Sinclair, who represented taxi driver Jon Harbinson, said the heist last April was ‘extraordinary’ considering the ages of the main conspirators – five of the seven men convicted were over 60.

He added that it was ‘very well planned, very well executed, if in the end flawed’, and that he could appreciate their audacity particularly because nobody was hurt.

‘Like a lot of people, I think, I do have a grudging admiration for the way they did it and when they did it, at their time of life,’ Mr Sin-

‘No one was hurt or even scared’

clair said. ‘I know some of them have got very shady pasts indeed. But this particular heist, no one was hurt in it, no-one was even scared. They did not confront anybody within the building.’

Mr Harbinson, 42, a father of three from Benfleet, Essex, was cleared of conspiracy to burgle last week. He was accused of storing much of the stolen jewellery, gems and gold before returning it to the gang to be split up. Most of the haul, estimated to be worth £24million, remains missing.

After his acquittal, Mr Harbinson, who spent eight months on remand in Belmarsh Prison, spent one more night in his cell so he could thank his fellow inmates who had ‘looked after’ him.

Mr Sinclair said the gang were caught out by a single CCTV camera on an adjacent jewellery shop. He added: ‘We watch these heist films on television. Sometimes we empathise with the villain of the piece, don’t we? Particularly if they are behaving in a clever way.’