Hatton Garden mastermind ‘has months to live’
Cancer-suffering 77-year-old too ill for court
THE mastermind of the £20million Hatton Garden heist could cheat justice because he has months to live and is too ill to be sentenced.
Brian Reader, 77 and known as the ‘Guv’nor’, was a key player in the diamond raid in central London last Easter.
But he was absent from the dock yesterday after spending more than a week in intensive care under 24-hour armed guard. He is battling prostate cancer and has suffered a stroke.
Six other members of the ‘Dad’s Army’ gang that carried out the robbery did appear in court yesterday for a three-day sentencing hearing.
Prosecutors urged the judge to throw the book at the men, saying the scale of the raid meant an example had to be made of them. Woolwich Crown Court was told that the age range of the defendants – 59 to 77 – meant some could expect to die behind bars.
And those who are released face Draconian restrictions aimed at finally ending their lives of crime. They would be banned from carrying jewels and cash worth more than £1,000 and watches worth more than £5,000.
Under legislation designed to counter nuisance youths, they could also be barred from meeting each other and ordered to tell police if they go abroad.
‘It is clear that this was a plan of the utmost sophistication, that was many years in the planning,’ said Philip Evans QC, prosecuting. ‘It was designed to achieve the maximum possible return for the minimum possible risk, and, the prosecution submit, plainly fits within the broad band of the worst type of this offence.’
Explaining the need for the indefinite orders, Mr Evans said: ‘They seek to prevent them dissipating the £10million worth of goods that remain outstanding.’
Reader’s family blame his condition on the maximum security conditions in which he has been
‘Many years of planning’
held at Belmarsh Prison in south-east London.
They said the deaf and partially sighted pensioner from Dartford in Kent suffered a stroke after falling over inside the unit.
His barrister, James Scobie QC, said the pensioner was too ill even to appear via video link. Asking for his sentence to be adjourned, Mr Scobie said: ‘It may well be that he does not have many more months to live.’
Mr Scobie said his client’s recovery had not been aided by the presence of nine armed officers who guarded him in hospital.
And he said his high security prison conditions are viewed with ‘ nothing other than scorn given his age and other factors’.
Diamonds, jewellery, gold bullion and cash worth up to £20million were stolen when the men drilled into the Hatton Garden basement vault last year.
Only a small proportion of the haul, worth up to £4million, has been recovered and Scotland Yard’s Flying Squad continues to try to track it down.
The shadowy master thief known only as Basil is still being sought, with a £20,000 reward on offer. The other members of the gang claim they were just ‘ the team on the ground’.