DIAMOND THIEVES ATWORK
EXTRAORDINARY new details of the Hatton Garden heist emerged last night as police released dramatic CCTV images in the hope of a breakthrough in the investigation.
The pictures reveal the robbers at work over several days as they take part in the estimated £60million raid on a basement packed with security boxes in London’s diamond district.
And today The Mail on Sunday can reveal that:
Security box owners angry at a lack of information from the police have bribed security guards to find out if they were victims.
All the boxes that were broken into were at waist height – and police believe it is because this was the best height at which the robbers’ could use their heavy-duty drill.
Local residents heard late-night drilling but did not report the matter – believing it to be workmen dealing with a recent power cut.
The CCTV video shows a gang of at least six men breaking into a basement side door at the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd building.
It’s now known they then took stairs to the second floor, disabled a lift and abseiled down the shaft to get to the vault, avoiding security doors. The footage is from the bottom of a fire escape by the basement side door.
At 9.23pm on the Thursday, just minutes after employees leave for the Easter bank holiday weekend, a red-haired man wearing a baseball cap is the first to arrive and heads downstairs to the vault.
A street camera then picks up a white Ford Transit van drawing up outside and men are seen dragging wheelie bins away before the van leaves.
The men, wearing high-visibility jackets and hard hats, carry large holdalls and drag the wheelie bins downstairs towards the vault.
It is thought that one of the bins contained the 77lb drill used to bore through the 6ft-thick vault wall.
On Good Friday, at 7.51am the raiders emerge through the basement side door with holdalls, tools and the bins, now believed to be filled with diamonds, cash and jewellery. The van is seen pulling up again before the men load it and drive off.
At 10.17pm on Saturday, the cameras show three of the men returning with holdalls and tool boxes. From 5.46am on Sunday, the gang go back and forth four times with a wheelie bin from the vault to the van. They then load up the van and drive off at 6.44am. A source at the building said: ‘The crooks opened 72 boxes. The ones that were opened were all at waist height, which detectives believe is because it is easier to hold heavy drilling equipment at that height.
‘Detectives found jewellery all over the floor. The crooks couldn’t carry it all. They were obviously confident because they made two trips to the vault over the weekend.’
One jeweller, who asked not to be named, said: ‘ The robbery was reported on Tuesday but by Friday we had still not been told whether our stuff had been taken.
‘I had £350,000 worth of cash and jewels and I was in a terrible state.
‘By Friday, some of us owners had had enough and each paid the staff at the building £100 to have a look at the list of boxes missing. Mine was fine but a friend had his life savings completely stolen, worth £500,000.’
Local resident John Han, 26, said: ‘I heard drilling late on Thursday but thought it was workmen after we had a huge power cut. When I heard the news, I realised it was the gang drilling into the vault.’
An alarm was reported to police but no response was deemed necessary. Yesterday, this decision was described as ‘totally incompetent’ by ex-head of the Flying Squad, John O’Connor.
Police said they have contacted 42 owners of the 72 boxes opened. The vault contains 999 boxes.