The Hatton Garden Heist
The burglary took place over Easter Bank Holiday Weekend in 2015. The targeted location was an underground safe deposit facility in Hatton Garden, London. The estimated total of what was stolen was up to the value of fourteen million pound. The heist was carried out by six elderly men who were all experienced thieves. Many of the businesses in the surrounding area were closed over the weekend. It is reported that the burglars entered the premises through a lift shaft. The group of assailants then drilled through a fifty-centimetre thick wall of the vault with a Hilti DD350 industrial power drill. Due to such significance, the investigation was assigned to The Flying Squad, a branch of the Specialist, Organised and Economic Crime Command.
The police first announced that the facility had been burgled on April 7th. This was followed by CCTV footage being released, initially by the Daily Mail, and then the police. This gave the assailants their nicknames which they would be known by until their true identities had been confirmed by the squad.
The Tall Man – John ‘Kenny’ Jones, The Gent – Brian Reader, The Strong Man – Carl Wood, Montana – Daniel Jones, The Old Man – Terry Perkins and Mr Ginger/Basil – Michael Seed.
April 2nd: Depository facility was locked up for the bank holiday weekend at around nine o’clock.
April 2nd: At 21:23, Basil entered the vault with three men following with green wheelie bins.
The heist took multiple attempts over the course of the weekend causing the group to split up, this ultimately caused them to make mistakes that eventually led to their arrest. The initial major mistake was made on the first night. Although they had disabled the alarm, the security company had still been alerted that it had been triggered. A security guard inspected, saw nothing and left. The police never went to investigate.
April 3rd: CCTV captured the men leaving empty-handed.
April 4th: The gang made their second attempt, which was successful. However, they now only had half the amount of men due to two assailants dropping out after the mistakes on the first night.
April 5th: CCTV captured men putting wheelie bins full of loot in a white van. The van was then driven to Collins’ house but they no longer had the time they originally planned to divide up the goods due to Collins’ wife returning from a weekend away. Each took a portion that they would hide til a later date.
Over the weekend in question, CCTV captured two of the assailants getting into a white Mercedes with a black roof. As this was a much more distinctive vehicle than the white van it was easier to track/trace. This gave the squad its first major lead in the case. CCTV led the police to the N1 part of London where the Mercedes was found parked on a residential street. Police then set up surveillance on this vehicle. The car belonged to seventy-four-year-old grandfather Kenny Collins aka The Tall Man, who was the group’s lookout and driver. (April 10th)
April 20th: Police spotted Collins meeting up with Brian Reader aka The Gent. The failure of the initial plan caused Reader not to participate in the second burglary attempt. He knew that going off plan would cause them to make mistakes and get caught.
April 24th: Collins was followed to a pub in North London, there he net Terry Perkins aka The Old Man and Daniel Jones aka Montana.
May 1st: Collins, Perkins and Reader met at a pub where surveillance officer with a hidden camera caught the whole conversation on film. The group are seen telling Reader about the second attempt. A lip-reading expert managed to give the police a full transcript. This was breakthrough number two for the squad. This also led to them getting the rare permission to bug both Collins’ and Perkins’ vehicles.
From recordings of the bugged cars, they figured out the identity of The Strong Man aka Carl Wood. Wood had also walked away before the second attempt. Reader and Wood had massively let the team down by walking away. Especially as Reader was the supposed leader. Some members believed that they didn’t deserve a cut of the loot. The group referred to the sixth and only unidentified member left as Basil. Basil had the keys to the safety deposit boxes. He was also the electronics expert but had appeared to have ceased all contact with the group and was never heard on the bugs. The squad now waited as long as possible until the gang were able to meet up and divide the goods.
May 15th: Perkins had paid for his daughter’s holiday so they could use her empty house for the meeting. CCTV was captured of the men transferring the loot from a taxi to the white Mercedes behind a pub in Enfield. Over one hundred police stormed Perkins’ daughter’s house and arrested four men; Collins, Perkins, Reader and Jones. In total twelve known locations of the group were raided and about a third of the total value stolen was recovered.
Reader, Collins, Perkins and Jones all pleaded not guilty. This meant no trial and a slightly reduced sentence.
Reader (76) – Six years and three months.
Collins (74), Perkins (67) and Jones (58) – Seven years
Woods (59) – Six years
William Lincoln (60, Collins’ brother in law) – Seven years, for helping to conceal and transfer loot.
Catching Basil
When police initially identified Collins they had him under surveillance. The squad wen back to all the footage to try and identity Basil. They identified and eliminated all the men Collins met until there was one who couldn’t be eliminated. Collins met the same man on multiple occasions and was followed to an area of interest of where he lived. By the end of 2015, Basil was identified as Michael Seed. Seed had no phone, no online profile, no bank accounts and no car rendering him completely untraceable and very difficult to catch.
The squad eventually ended up watching Seed for two years. Basil and Seed were very similar in height and build but the squad had nothing concrete enough to get a warrant to search his property. It was not until they compared footage of Seed and Basil walking that they noticed both had a very distinctive walk of overthrowing the left leg. This finally got the police the warrant they needed.
March 27th 2018: Seed was arrested at his home and there they found masses of incriminating evidence. Such as; a gold smelter, jewellery and two gold bars matching those stolen during the heist. In total One hundred and fifty thousand pounds worth of gold was recovered.
May 15th 2019: Seed was convicted of his role in the heist and pleaded not guilty resulting in the maximum sentence of ten years.
Where are they now?
The gang between them owe a joint £5.75million, which prosecutors say is available in hidden assets from unrecovered jewellery, gold, gems and cash. This is in addition to individual amounts from assets such as properties in the UK and abroad. Although Terry Perkins died in 2018 prosecutors are trying to recoup money from his estate. John ‘Kenny’ Collins has been sent back to jail after failing to pay back the money he owed after the raid. Daniel Jones also sentenced to seven more years after failing to pay. Brian Reader was released in 2018 after serving only half his six-year sentence. He is still yet to pay back any money but it looks likely that he will avoid going back to prison due to ill-health, primarily early on-set dementia. Carl Wood was trying to appeal the judgement made for repaying as he did not gain anything from the heist. Michael Seed has also recently been ordered to pay back the near six million figure or serve an additional seven years.
