The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Six men sentenced for roles in ‘biggest burglary in history’
Gang with combined age of 448 carried out £14m safety deposit box jewellery raid
Five men involved in the £14 million Hatton Garden jewellery raid have been jailed for up to seven years, while a sixth was given a suspended sentence.
The gang, with a combined age of 448, carried out the “sophisticated” and meticulously planned break-in over Easter weekend last year.
Less than a year after the audacious raid, six of the seven men convicted in connection with the burglary were sentenced at Woolwich Crown Court on Wednesday.
Ringleaders John “Kenny” Collins, 75, of Bletsoe Walk, Islington, north London; Daniel Jones, 61, of Park Avenue, Enfield, north London; Terry Perkins, 67, of Heene Road, Enfield, and the group’s oldest member, Brian Reader, 77, of Dartford Road, Dartford, Kent, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit burglary last September.
Collins, Jones and Perkins were each given a seven-year prison term.
Jones and Perkins said “thank you” to the judge as they sat down, with other members of the group reassuringly patting one another on the back.
Carl Wood, 59, of Elderbeck Close, Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, and William Lincoln, 60, of Winkley Street, Bethnal Green, east London, were found guilty of the same offence and one count of and conspiracy to conceal, convert or transfer criminal property, after trial.
Lincoln was also given a seven-year sentence, and Wood was jailed for six years.
Plumber Hugh Doyle, 49, of Riverside Gardens, Enfield, was found guilty of concealing, converting or transferring criminal property between January 1 and May 19 last year.
He was jailed for 21 months, suspended for two years.
Sentencing them, Judge Christopher Kinch QC, said: “The burglary of the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit vault in April 2015 has been labelled by many – including some defendants and advocates in this case – as the biggest burglary in English legal history.
“Whether that assertion is capable of proof, I do not know. However, it is clear that the burglary at the heart of this case stands in a class of its own in the scale of the ambition, the detail of the planning, the level of preparation and the organisation of the team carrying it out, and in terms of the value of the property stolen.”
Casting aside sentencing guidelines, Judge Kinch said: “In my judgment, this must rank among the worst offences of its type.”
He added that the sentencing guidelines were “simply not designed with a case of this scale in mind” and that “nothing other than the maximum sentence permitted by law for anyone conspiring to take part in this exceptional case” would be appropriate.
But refusing the Crown’s application for the imposition of criminal behaviour orders (CBOs), Judge Kinch continued that “bearing in mind the relative mature ages of the defendants” he was not satisfied they were necessary.
Renewing an appeal for information about missing thief Basil, Detective Superintendent Craig Turner, head of the Met’s Flying Squad, said: “The individual known as ‘Basil’ remains unknown. We believe he let the group in and possibly disarmed the alarm.”