Five of the Hatton Garden safety deposit raid gang jailed

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.

Tunnel leading into the vault at the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit company in London. Picture: PA

The gang, with a combined age of 448, carried out the “sophisticated” and meticulously planned break-in over the 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 Islington, north London; Daniel Jones, 61, of Enfield, north London; Terry Perkins, 67, of Enfield, and the group’s oldest member, Brian Reader, 77, of 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 Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, and William Lincoln, 60, of 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 Enfield, was found guilty of concealing, converting or transferring criminal property between 1 January and 19 May last year.

He was jailed for 21 months, suspended for two years.

Sentencing them, Judge Christopher Kinch QC, said: “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.

Renewing an appeal for information about missing thief “Basil”, Detective Superintendent Craig Turner, head of the Met’s Flying Squad, said: “Basil is still wanted in connection with the burglary and we would ask anyone who has information as to the identity of ‘Basil’ or the whereabouts of the outstanding jewellery, to contact police.

“We are offering a reward of up to £20,000 for information leading to his arrest and conviction and the recovery of the outstanding property.”

Valuables worth up to £14 m, including gold, diamonds and sapphires, were taken from 73 deposit boxes.

Two-thirds of them remain unrecovered.